Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Check Scammer Explains How To Beat The Banks | Charlie Hartman

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

Charlie Hartman shares his life of crime on the run. Connect with Charlie Hartman: https://www.tiktok.com/@imcharliehartman?_t=8n5y1phlTm2&_r=1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMhHySYEfrJdD37Pq7...TYL1A https://www.instagram.com/imcharliehartman?igsh=d3E4NjgyMmkwNWh2&utm_source=qr Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7 Send me an email here: insidetruecrime@gmail.com Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content? Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news   🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt 🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/re Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69

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Starting point is 00:01:24 Taking these homeless guys, cleaning them up We're just getting routing numbers and accounting numbers, going from Vegas all the way up to Reno. The plan was make a bunch of money with Nick and I was going to go disappear. You get the adrilling in Russia more and more and more and more. I can't be stopped.
Starting point is 00:01:40 Cops just surround me. That's a PBL. Okay, what's a PBL? Punishable by life. Oh, shit. Did you get like getting trouble when you were a kid? Oh, man. I was, dude, I was like the best kid,
Starting point is 00:01:53 Boy Scout, everything. You know that thing, Matt, when he talked about like, oh, I started my crime wife. off when I was, like, stealing candy and stuff. Right. Like, mine came from a Christian bookstore. Okay. So what ends up happening is my aunt, who's a divine Christian, was like, hey, do me
Starting point is 00:02:12 a favor. I'm like, 14. She's like, take this back to the Christian bookstore and return it for me and just get the money back. The guy knows who I am, no big deal. So I'm like, I go do it, and I go return and get her the money back and everything. And then, like, a couple weeks later, I noticed a dollar general. I'm like 14.
Starting point is 00:02:29 I'm out walking around with my friends. I see the same books in the dollar general store and then is in the Christian bookstore. So I'm like, wait, these are only a dollar here, but they're $30 there. So I went and bought four of them, went and returned them at the Christian bookstore, and got the money back. Right. And that's what she was doing too?
Starting point is 00:02:51 No, I was doing it. Oh, I thought you figured out that's what she was doing. No, no, no, no. She was returning a book. She's asked me to return a book for. you're going to run down and return a book for and I'm like, I started figuring out like, oh, I could just scheme and scam this way.
Starting point is 00:03:05 Right. And how old were you? I was like 14. Okay. So now I'm like gathering up by my friends and like we're like plotting and we're like going to like books a million and we're like doing this like we did this for like a year. Like so I had like a whole organization of like scamming kids
Starting point is 00:03:20 you know using my friends to like to go to bookstores and start scamming people. Did they ever figure that out? Like eventually they're like how many times are you and return this book. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I don't know. Eventually they started giving us, like, gift cards.
Starting point is 00:03:35 So they were no good at that point. You know what I mean? So you're not buying a lot of, a lot at the Christian bookstore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But yeah. And so I was always, like, trying to always think ahead, like, how can I make money, and, you know, and everything like that, and that scheme and scam like that. And basically, I was, like, 16, my mom came to me, and she's like, hey, look, I'm found
Starting point is 00:03:57 a dude. I want to get married. he does not want to be a stepdaddy. I'm going to give you the house. I'm going to give you the car. Go to school. Do not fuck this up. And make sure you just go to school
Starting point is 00:04:10 and everything will be fine. So I go for like the first year, right? Then I find this thing in, it's like a magazine. I mean, it's how predated this is. This is like 96, 97. Get your high school diploma from home. And I was like a,
Starting point is 00:04:25 it's like a correspondence place called International Correspondent school and Scranton people. it's like for people that are like kids that are like traveling or you know you know yeah yeah it's it's but they can mail it you can mail it off like like you could do your classes at home and like over the phone and like take your tests and stuff like that everything so at the age of 16 i started doing this during my summer between the start of high school and ended up graduating with enough credits before the start of actual high school and I went turned the paperwork in and the and the school like
Starting point is 00:05:01 whoa whoa whoa this is supposed to take like three years what are you talking about I'm done like here's all my interpretations I've completed everything now they're like well how did you do advanced algebra all this and that because I didn't have the grades for that stuff right and what I did was I paid somebody that knew how to do it right took the test for me past all the correspondence and that's it. They were like, they were flipping out. They're like, this can't, because there's three or four kids started signing up. They're all going to do it too. Right. They're like, well, we can't have this. Right. So they actually made a law in the county banning this correspondent school in the whole county. But by that point, you'd already-
Starting point is 00:05:39 I've already graduated. So I started working. Because my thing was I was like, I need to go to school. Man, I need to work. I need to make money. So I started working at a hotel. And I'm working at holiday end doing banquet set up. And I run in this guy named Barry. He was like a just classic con man. He's working the front desk. He's like getting people's credit card numbers. He's doing scams. And he takes a liking to me. And he's like, let me show you a couple things. He starts showing me how to like take people's credit cards and order stuff. And the main reason he was doing it was because guess what? I'm 16. If we get busted, he gets no trouble. And the 16 year old gets in trouble. What happens to me? Nothing. Right. So, so I started doing scams with him. He introduces
Starting point is 00:06:25 me to warranty scams and life changes. What are warranty scams? So, like, for example, these microphones, right? These cameras. They're very expensive, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, so, I mean, what I would do is most companies offer a free warranty. So what we do is we would call these companies up and say, hey, we shipped in a camera to you. And then we would do a, reverse address search we would say how did you ship it in we did it by UPS and UPS like okay well do you have a tracking number you could write us proof we'll just send you a new one okay so I would call UPS up and then I would sit there and it was take this takes several steps call UPS up would be the first step then I would say hey I shipped in Sony a camera Sony they said oh what date did you do it
Starting point is 00:07:15 okay great you would you know who signed for it I'd write down who signed for it. Now I know on this date a package was signed for by this person. I don't have anything else. They won't give me anything else. Hang up, call right back. Hey, on this date, I had sent a package in and this person signed for it. And it was weighing between this and this. Okay, yeah, I see the package here. Oh, great. Can I get the tracking number? I lost it. Right. They give me the tracking number. Then I take the tracking number, call back again and ask for a proof of delivery. Hey, here's the full tracking number. Can you send me the proof of delivery?
Starting point is 00:07:50 Well, they'd be like, okay, well, how's that work? You know, they're going to sit with that person's name on it, right? Oh, no, that was just my assistant. He was just shipping it out for me. Can you put my name and my address on it? They would alternate, put my name, my address on it. They would either fax it to me or email it to me. Okay.
Starting point is 00:08:12 And now I've got a proof of delivery that says, Charles Hartman, my address, this. Oh, can you put the description of merchandise what was inside of it too? Oh, yeah, sure. Oh, camera, Sony camera. And that was it. Now I've got a proof of delivery from UPS.
Starting point is 00:08:27 I give it to the company. Company says, well, I don't know. We must have lost it. Right. We'll just replace it or how much did you pay for it. Well, we paid $1,000 for it. It would either cut me a check or send me a check. Right.
Starting point is 00:08:41 So, so between 16,000. to 21, I probably did over half a million dollars in warranty scams. Right. Did you ever just mail out another one? What's that? Another, they were... Oh, yeah, yeah. A lot of times they'll mail me the product, right?
Starting point is 00:08:58 You just turn it back in or trade or sell it. I just go sell it. I had a network of pawn shops. I come in and like, hey, you got a thousand-dollar camera, give me $500 for it. Yeah, it's not like it's stolen. It's not stolen. And it has a warranty right here. Right.
Starting point is 00:09:13 Yeah. And the problem is, is you can only... only do your name so many times, right? Yeah. So I started, you know, finding people I can use her address, user name, the next thing you know. And I did that for over five years and never got called. Yeah, I was going to say, it's funny because it's, that, that, you know, I guess,
Starting point is 00:09:29 you know, I mean, that, that's obviously a scam. But I'm saying, we'll have, you know, Jess's daughter ordered, like, headphones and wore them for a year, year and a half. And then they just got worn out, and one day they just stopped. Right. And I just packaged them up and mailed them back to the place and said, listen, I buy, and I was the whole, I buy all your stuff. We have. And then I would go on the website and find other devices that they have.
Starting point is 00:09:55 We bought this. We bought this. Blah, blah, blah. These wore out. And I said, if you could just fix them and bill me for it, send me the invoice, I'll pay you for it knowing. For them, it's $6. Right. For us, it's a $40 pair of headset.
Starting point is 00:10:08 So they just made, they say, oh, thank you very much. Here's a new headset. Right. And that's the same thing. because what happens is the company doesn't want a problem. It's not cash because all I did was get a new headset. You actually get a choice. And I've never done it for $1,000 or, you know, that would be I'd rather have a check
Starting point is 00:10:24 because now I've got to sell the product. But even if you sold it at a discount, you're still getting $6 or $800 or $800. And remember at this time, how old am I? I'm 16, 17 years old. A lot of money. Yeah, for a kid. I mean, I'm just living life. Well, until eventually the UPS driver, I had too many packages.
Starting point is 00:10:43 get delivered to my house. Right. And the EPS driver was, it was strange. It was like, all this electronic stuff keeps coming here over and over and over and over again. And then I was like, he asked me one day, he said, what do you order? I said, oh, we have a wholesale business. Right. And it's just something that's sit well with him.
Starting point is 00:11:00 So he turned it into their investigation department. Investigation department turned it into the police department. They start watching. Next thing you know, I'm sitting there. I'm expecting an amplifier to come. because car stereos was like that was the thing back then right like amplifier speakers
Starting point is 00:11:17 and then they would replace them like there's nothing you could get top dollar for it you could either sell them to somebody you know or whoever and I would sit there and all of a sudden I'm sitting there I'm like I'm waiting for this package because I got a guy waiting to buy it because that was the only thing as soon as I knew it was shipped
Starting point is 00:11:34 I'd start looking for buyers and man I'm sitting there waiting waiting waiting and next thing you know like it doesn't come and it says, oh, package was held at the UPS center. You have to, we missed the thing. You have to come pick it up. It's not good.
Starting point is 00:11:50 I'm stupid. I'm thinking, okay, no big deal. You know, I'll go up there and get it. And I walk in, and the moment I walked in, I seen a guy stand over in the corner, and I'm like, looking at me, weird, and next thing you know, I came up to the corner and just gave my ID, and next thing you know, like, Charles Hartman,
Starting point is 00:12:08 handcuffed me. All right. I'm like, and I'm, at that time, now I'm past 18, right? So I'm like, so I'm like, I know I'm getting arrested. So they arrested me, they take me downtown, and they take me in a room and, you know, it's the interrogation, a big interrogation. They're like, all right, tell us where your boss is, tell us who the guy is. I'm like, I'm the guy. Right.
Starting point is 00:12:35 What are you talking about? No, no, no, no, no. Who are you working for? Like, where's the, where's all the. equipment at where are you working for i'm like there is no equipment this i don't have anything it's the first right no no no we've we know no we know we know we've gotten we've pulled your address and we got we see you on thousands of packages delivered here and you've gotten all in your area who who are you working for it's like you know just snitch is okay i'm like like like i would
Starting point is 00:13:04 have snitched i was like i'm going to jail here like i got nobody to snitch on but myself And they're just, they're like baffled. They don't know what to charge me with. They don't know charging me with fraud. They don't know to charge me within, you know, they finally end up charging me with attaining property on a false pretense. And, and I'm like. Do they don't even have a, do they have a dollar amount?
Starting point is 00:13:27 Because I'm assuming nothing. Just for that particular one. So all they are going to got me for at this point. So they basically take me in front of the magistrate and I've never been in trouble before. Master's, R&R is me. Went to me going on my own bond. I got back on the street.
Starting point is 00:13:44 Detective calls me like a week later. He's like, I don't even have a lawyer. I went to the arraignment in or whatever. And I was like, I guess we'll get an attorney or whatever. And my mom was like, I didn't know how serious trouble I was in. Right. Like, is that serious trouble? Like, I don't even know.
Starting point is 00:14:01 Like, like, they were building a case because they're like, they're like, they have years of this stuff. Like, they're like, you know, we're going to, you know, so they get me to that. They came me back downtown, and then I'm going to an attorney, and I guess they're working a deal out. They don't care at this point about what I've done. They just want to know how I did it. So the deal I strike with them is, show us how you did it, and you'll walk on probation. Right. So they take me into this room at the UPS center.
Starting point is 00:14:34 We go back, we go to meet downtown, we drive it to the UPS center, and there's all these UPS executives sitting there. They're like, show us how you scammed us. Right. I'm like, what? I'm like, we're getting in trouble here? He's like, no, go ahead. It's fine. So I do the scam in front of them.
Starting point is 00:14:51 Right. And the guy was like, oh, this is not going to work. This is not how you did it. He's got to have it. Because they thought I had like somebody working for UPS on the inside. They're like, our employees are not going to just give you information. I was like, well, they are, pal. So I just sit there and we go through the steps.
Starting point is 00:15:08 I call step one, step two, step three, step four. next thing you know the guy's face is just like you can just see the fast face so now if you ever call UPS bearer back in the day they won't even give you no information unless you have the full track of number right so so anybody has a package issue you probably can blame me for that right I was like it's funny my buddy Zach got caught he was scamming I want to say Enterprise out of cars he was getting them to He had just figured out how to call up, give them a number on a corporate card, and they would allow you him to, anybody to show up, give him a number, show him an ID,
Starting point is 00:15:53 give him the keys of the car, and they could just drive off. And, of course, they would cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars because these guys aren't returning the cars. They're just, yeah. And they're driving around for a couple of, for a month or two until the report is stolen, and then they're just selling them and getting them chopped up. But it's funny, too, because when they have, Eventually, where they were trying to track him down on that, the big thing that the investigator
Starting point is 00:16:17 was saying was like, who are you working for working with on the inside? He's like, I'm not working with anybody on the inside. Like, I, can you, I. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. And do it by phone. Like I'd call up and I, you know, but they just didn't understand. They didn't want to believe that.
Starting point is 00:16:44 Right. They don't want to believe that their big corporation is so vulnerable to something, right? Exactly. So, you know, I end up getting basically probation and I have to go do like community service and shit. And I'm like, so I basically end up going and getting a job because I got two because I got probation, right? Yeah, you can't. So, and I'm like working at like Kroger. And I'm like, this sucks.
Starting point is 00:17:11 Like, what the, what am I doing? Like, this is horrible. So I ended up getting, hooking up a buddy mine. And he's like, look, man, he's like, I know how to do checks. If you're, if you'll work with me, we do checks. I'm like, I don't say, well, let's go. Right. I was like, so he starts showing me how to do check scams.
Starting point is 00:17:31 And I'm like, so we, so, because a lot of these, in my area up there, a lot of these have deep stores, you know, you know, well, mom and pop, little stores are no ID needed. You just walk in, you know, on Friday night, hand them your check, and you just put a little fingerprint right there, boom, and there you go. You cash it in at the gas station, buy a six pack of beer, and they give you the difference, and, you know, no big deal. Right. Well, what we would do is we would go and we would find companies that had, you know,
Starting point is 00:18:02 that were in that area, and we would go after 5 o'clock, so the company is closed, so they can't call and verify it. Right. And we go in these, you know, small stores, he would put super glue on our fingers right here. Right. Kind of throw the, you know, the, the sin off, and we put them on just random. We would do, like, small amounts, $436, $396. And we would just go and we would just bang checks in 560 stores in a row every Friday and Saturday and just make money.
Starting point is 00:18:32 But are you guys making the checks yourself? Yes, yeah, because he had, he had, because he would use a, he used quick, books, books, yep. And so he'd get the routing number and everything. Routing and the count numbers. And what we would do is a lot of times we would, you know, find people that we knew that worked normal jobs. Hey, give you $100 and we take a photocopier, your check.
Starting point is 00:18:50 Right. Now, now we know what it is. And they didn't have watermarks like they knew now. So it's like, it's easy. You get the logos, put it on there. Next thing, you know, you print it. Plus these little gas stations, they're not paying attention to detail, like, paper and certain things.
Starting point is 00:19:05 Right, until they get hit a few times. Yeah. Then they start paying attention. But by then, you've already moved on to the next store and you're doing it. So I did that for like three years. Just like, I had good luck, man. I had good luck. My problem was I started doing drugs.
Starting point is 00:19:23 Right. I started doing pills. And then I get sloppy, right? Because you get sloppy when you start getting on pills because you're needing, you know, now you're, you know, I'm getting a, you know, a couple hundred dollar a day. pill habit. Then it turns into a bigger habit. Then it turns into other drugs. And I was like, so I got to the point where we'd burned our area so bad. I was like, I have to figure something I'll have to do. And I end up hooking up with a, I don't know if you ever remember back
Starting point is 00:19:54 in the day the magazine salesmen. Yeah. People that would knock on the doors. Yeah. It's the biggest scam of all time. Yeah. They'd say, hey, I'm, hey, I'm winning, I'm making money for a trip, you know, for school or I'm, you know, going to be this and that. Well, I was like, and so I didn't have hooking up and going with them on a job. And I was like, this is the perfect cover. These people travel to a town for a week or two. Then they travel to another town. They're paying for the hotels.
Starting point is 00:20:22 So I'm just like literally working part time for them, traveling with them, and I'm just out doing checks in little stores. I'm just like, this is great. Like I'm not going to get caught. I mean, because we're not going to be here. enough for by the time, you know, because the check's not going to immediately show back up, right? It takes several days for it to go through, so it's not going to immediately happen. So, I mean, by the time it comes back to the store, we're already in another town.
Starting point is 00:20:51 Right. So, I mean, I have like a year run doing this. Like, I'm just making money. And I'm like, there's points where days I'm just going out selling magazines door to door. I'm just out doing checks. And I come back and the manager's like, did you sell anything today? I'm like, oh, yeah, I sold two magazines. here's 90 bucks right like I just made a thousand dollars I mean like who cared well
Starting point is 00:21:14 the problem was my pill habit got too big and I got to a point where I wasn't doing checks properly I was going now I'm knocking the doors trying to sell magazines right I'm trying to make money and I'm like I'm like going through people's like bathrooms like hey I'm doing selling magazines to go to school and and I like they're oh yeah come on in and I come in and back Hey, can I use your bathroom? And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going through, like, their medicine cabinet. I remember, like, this old lady's, like, I remember, like, we were in, like, in Illinois,
Starting point is 00:21:46 and I'm, like, going through this, like, ladies medicine cabinet looking through pills, and I'm, like, trying to, and I end up taking the pills and put in my pocket. And she went right back in the bathroom right afterwards, and she's like, where's my pills? And I, like, ran out the door, and I'm like, holy shit. Like, she's, like, chasing after me, and I'm like, and I'm like, oh, my God, like, I'm just, I know I'm, no, I know it's all going to come to an end, right? You know, I mean, eventually, right?
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Starting point is 00:23:08 Even better, our listeners can get 50% off sitewide for a limited time. Just visit ghostbed.com slash Cox and use the code Cox at checkout. Again, that's ghostbed.com slash Cox with the code Cox at the checkout to save a whopping 50% off site wide. We come to Florida. Now, that old saying about Florida, right? You come to Florida on vacation, leave on probation, come back on violation. right that's that's me like when you were i was like matt where do you live it is tampa's like fuck anywhere but tampa god please uh but i was like all right you know it's fine now but i was
Starting point is 00:23:49 like so you know so we come to come down here and i dude this is right for christmas like 05 i'm like dude i'm so messed up on pills i end up like knocking on this girl's door and i'm like hey i'm selling magazine do do let me in and i walk in and i walk in and I go into the bathroom, you know, doing my good thing around, and I look into the bottom of cabinet, she's got freaking just stacks of grass cash pill. I'm like, oh, man, so I'm like, like, shh. I'm like, oh, my phone rang, my boss is waiting for me.
Starting point is 00:24:22 I got to go, you know what I mean? She fucking starts screaming and hollering. She's like, you're robbing me. I'm like, oh. But she went in the bathroom right after you again. She realized she knew. She knew. So I'm like, I like, she comes right out,
Starting point is 00:24:36 and I like push her out of the way and I'll just run out the door and I'm like as I'm running keep in mind I'm like at this time I'm over 500 pounds I'm big now right
Starting point is 00:24:46 I've lost a lot of weight since then I'm over 500 right you've lost weight since then yes okay so I by the time I ended up going to prison the first time I was 610 you're 500 pounds running you're that big
Starting point is 00:24:58 yes yes so just imagine this 500 pound guy just like oh like I ran so far as my shoe fell off right so like like they found my shoe like and like i'm like going down the hill so my i call my manager and he picks me up he's like what do you what are you doing i was like oh this dog tried to attack me and stuff and like i'll have my shoe and so he took me a one more to
Starting point is 00:25:24 get me another pair of shoes so like i ended up like five hours i'm going back to work right i'm like all right nothing happened you know no big deal you know we're going over to the next town over I don't think it's in any way I don't realize this is all the same county so they got like APBs out of all of us like people selling magazines trying to figure out what's going on next thing I know cops just surround me guns on how they know it was me yeah yeah yeah yeah wasn't me um the other fat guy wouldn't me you know so I'm like so I end up getting so they busted me and they charged me with burglary they charged me with uh burglary of an occupied dwelling with a battery.
Starting point is 00:26:08 Well, in Florida, that's a PBL. Okay, what's a PBL? Punishable by life. Oh, shit. I don't feel like, did you burglary? You didn't break in. She invited you in, but that's not how they look at it. But that's, once you cross a dwelling and someone's asked you to leave or you commit a battery in Florida inside of a dwelling, you're done.
Starting point is 00:26:32 Yeah, because, I mean, that's, so then, but here comes. worst part. Now, checks, they start finding out about checks. They found out because my name, my name was, there are certain times I would use my ID, these checks I'd try cashing. Right. And I had some in Putton County. I had, you know, some down here in Hillsborough. And they were just like, oh, what's all these checks and warrants you got everywhere? I'm like, oh, so I knew I was done. Like, so now, I mean, I go and end up going into Lake County Jail. And like, I'm sitting there for like three days. You know, I'm just like going through withdrawals, which is the worst thing to do in jail. If you're going through, you're just like hugging a toilet. You don't want to,
Starting point is 00:27:15 you don't want to be around it. You're just like, you feel like crap. Well, I end up basically, I'm sitting there and I'm like, I feel like I'm with death. And I finally start getting my senses back now, you know, you know, and now next day I know, I go and this public defender comes and sees me. It's right after Christmas. I'm sitting there. She's like, well, I think I might be able to get you 40. Oh my God. 40. What? Yeah. 40 days? She's like, no, no. She's like, you've got a punishable about life. She said, we might be able to get you, you know, she said, it's a pun, you know, I'm like, there's a burglaring side of a dwelling with a lady. And I was like, There was driving.
Starting point is 00:28:00 Kind of like that. Like, look, look, this is all you're charged with. I was like, well, you're fired. Right. I called home to my mom. I was like, they're trying to stick me down here. Like, she thought that, okay, is this going to be on another little instant, a little slap on the wrist? Another probation.
Starting point is 00:28:18 A little probation, you know, I'm not coming home. Right. Like, you know, 40 years is life. I mean, that's a long time. And so they were. So they went and I started asking around, you know, who's a good attorney. He gets me, they find me a good attorney there, right? And he's like, look, he's like, you know, he's like, oh, he's like, just, you need to just sit.
Starting point is 00:28:42 You need to let them forget about you. Right. And just, you know, work as a trustee, do whatever, hang out, just stay. Stay out of trouble. And gain signatures in there as a trustee. Yeah. And just be good. and I sat for like a year.
Starting point is 00:29:00 And what did he charge you? Fee, 20. Okay. Yeah, that sounds, for a good, for, first, it's funny because like a federal attorney, you know, and then they want like 50,000 off the rip at least, you know, but for, for, and that's just to start with. Then they're going to start milking the time, the investigators, the, yeah, everything. But a state attorney, I was thinking, yeah, 15 or 20, you get a good one.
Starting point is 00:29:23 Yeah, 20, 20, 20, you're going to go home. You know what I mean? it's either you're going to give them 20 or you're going to give the state 20 right one of the two so so we I sat and during this time like I make good for the officers so I'm likable you know what I mean I'm not in their fucking murder you know what I mean I'm my child molester you know what I mean it's easy you know what I mean do your time keep your mouth shut you know no one bothers you and I'm in there and I end up working as housemen for a couple of housemen officers and a officer
Starting point is 00:29:55 Pollock and Officer Brown are there. So if you guys ever Google it, Lake County officers bringing in drugs and contraband. They're bringing in drugs and contraband to us. We're selling it and getting them money back.
Starting point is 00:30:12 I feel like that's illegal. I mean, it's frowned upon at least. It's frowned upon. But then the funniest part is I'm sitting there, I'm supposed to go to court for like two or three months and they just keep getting I keep getting my attorney to push it back.
Starting point is 00:30:27 I'm like, because I'm making money while I'm in jail. I'm like, plus two, I'm getting good time. And I'm like, you know, and then they're even writing letters or reference for me too. And I'm like, you know, this will be great. I'm going to, you know, oh, yeah, you'll probably get you down to probation or something. You know what I mean? But well, well, it ends up coming out basically that comes to me and says, look, he said the best I can get you is three in.
Starting point is 00:30:55 and a spend his sentence with 20. But you'll be home in, at that point, you'll be home in two years. I'm like, well, fuck, man. I was like, whatever. You know what I mean? I mean, this is the best we're going to get, the best we're going to get. Yeah. I mean, the dams are better than 40.
Starting point is 00:31:12 Right. So I end up, so I end up signing it, signing it, and going to prison. And I get to prison, and it's a whole other world. We're not in Lake County, Florida anymore. I mean, this, I mean, we're walking around. I mean, I get off the bus, and I'm like, holy shit, what have I got myself in? Like, it's starting to roll, like, dawn on me. Like, like, there's no guarantee you're going home.
Starting point is 00:31:38 Right. Like, like, you're in prison here. Like, you get sent to what, what, the, they have a, is it, they call it a transfer station? Yeah, so the first, the first time I went to prison in Florida, they sent me to a Lando, to Lando reception. reception that's what they call reception and they mix you in with guys that have life sentences and guys that are doing two months two months so you're you're in open bay in like the first the first day you're there you're going through like it's cattle prod and they're just sending you through and they're just trying to figure out where they're going to send you and i mean i remember like being in there like and like the officer's walking through and then got any guy who was in there was a chomo and he would be like chomo and bunk 21 chomo and bunk 21 And I'm sitting there like, holy shit. Well, I'm taking my coffee break. I'll be gone for the next couple hours.
Starting point is 00:32:32 Yeah. And you already know what time it is, though. It's all bad for that. It's all bad. And like, I'm just, and I mean, I'm, the good thing at that point is I'm a pretty big dude. So I'm like, okay, I always think I'm going to worry about, someone's going to like jump on top of me here, I don't think. You know what I mean? Right.
Starting point is 00:32:50 So, you know, I end up going to my first camp. They send me to Cross City CI. It's like medium, maximum, security level, camp. And I get there and I meet my buddy Nick and come dear friends to him this day. And he basically is like showing me the ropes. He's like, hey man, you just got to, here, I'll get you working in the kitchen. I was like, man, you'll fit in perfectly with us, man. You know, we run the kitchen, you know, everything will be good.
Starting point is 00:33:21 I'm like, all right. I get in the kitchen. and man, I walk in, it looks like they got an operation going on that. They got sandwiches they're making on the table. They got food. But what is this for like outside people? Oh, this is for us to sell in the compound. Right.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Like, what are you guys doing? And they're like wrapping up these cheeseburgers. And they start wrapping up all these different little cheeseburgers. And one guy says, hey, come here, big guy. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, come here. And he said, they take the saran wrap and wrap these cheeseburg. burgers around my belly underneath my belly is like this big and underneath it like the little
Starting point is 00:33:58 punch right there right i got like 10 cheeseburgers wrapped and they were like they're like just when you go out the guards are going to patch you down but you're so big they're not going to fill that they're going to they're going to let you go so i'm like the first day i'm like carrying like 20 cheeseburgers off the compound and next that's how i you got the name cheeseburger in prison so they probably liked you too too they thought this guy's worth 20 a day oh this guy this guy this guy this This guy's our meal ticket. You know, he's going to, you know, and so I never got into no problems. You know, you know, I'm going to fit in how I get in because I know, look, look, I'm here for two years.
Starting point is 00:34:35 I got to do this two years. I'm going to get out of here. Yeah. And, I mean, during that time, me and Nick could become really tight. And Nick's telling me. What was he in there for? Fraud, forgery. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:46 Of course, your kindred spirits. Yeah, kind of spirit. Yeah, kind of spirit. He's just hanging out. He's telling me he's living in, he goes in Vegas. He's just like, man, this is great. Yeah. hang, you know, I was like, man, you got to come hang out.
Starting point is 00:34:55 You know how people are in prison. Oh, yeah, when you get out, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And after like a wall, you're like, okay, sure, Nick, you know what I mean? So he leaves. You know, he, he, O, EOSs. Two weeks later, I get an envelope from him.
Starting point is 00:35:09 Hey, man, here's my address. I sent you some money on your books. Hey, man, if you ever need nothing, I'm here for you. You know, solid dude, right? Yeah. So I end up finishing my time. I know, me, Matt, I know that I'm not going to do probation. Right.
Starting point is 00:35:26 Like, I know I'm going to fuck this up. Right. Like, I know this is not going to end well for me. I have a 20-year spend of a sentence. This is not going to end well for me. Oh, yeah. That's not good at all because if you fuck up, you could end up with doing the 20. I can do the 20 plus if I catch new charges, they can enhance these sentence.
Starting point is 00:35:43 Okay. See, Florida has the craziest law ever. You ever heard the reoffender act in Florida? No. So this is how it works. So if you get out of prison in Florida, within three years of you getting out, you catch any charge, they can 10 times your recommended sentence. So you could end up, 85% of people that are in Florida's system right now are on probation violations. It's not new charges.
Starting point is 00:36:12 It's not like, like, yeah, they call it they call it a burglary charge, which usually be like five years, right? Well, now they're going to get 15, 15, 20 years on top of whatever their violations are because it's a system to make money. Yeah. Because, you know, the state, that's how, I mean, U28, 395 made them a lot of money. That was my prison. I made them a lot of money. Every time, that's the reason they do prison counts in Florida three times a day
Starting point is 00:36:37 because every time that they count your number, they're billing the state. So I'm like, man, I know this is not going to work out. I got to figure something out. So I end up, I'm trying to go back home to Virginia, it was the original plan. Right. But they tell me, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have to transfer your probation.
Starting point is 00:37:00 I'm not from here. They're like, well, you got to pick somewhere to go. And you mean, I don't live here. They're like, well, pick a county, pick somewhere to go, find a halfway house figure or something. So I ended up basically ended up coming to St. Pete because I had a friend I lived in St. Pete
Starting point is 00:37:17 and I couldn't end up staying there and ended up staying in a shelter for two days until I can meet my probation officer. Oh, that sucks. So you're fresh out of prison. You're thinking, oh, man, now I'm in a shelter.
Starting point is 00:37:29 These guys are doing more drugs than they were on the street. I'm like, this is great. So I'm like, I got to get out of here. So I go meet the probation officer. He walks in, he's got this big stack here. He said, all these right here. here, these are the ones that have failed.
Starting point is 00:37:47 This couple right here, those are the ones that have passed. Which one you think you're going to end up in? I was like, I don't want to go back to home Virginia. And he's like, well, we're going to get approved by the state. That's going to be, you know, 60 to 90 days you'll have to stay here. And 60, 90 days, you're going to violate me. Right. Like, I'm not going to make it. I mean,
Starting point is 00:38:11 I don't have a job. I don't have no family down here. I have no support system. I'm going to going to, I'm going to screw this up. So I'm like, well, look, can I get a travel pass at least go home, see my mom, you know what I mean, and do this and that? And he's like, all right, all right, I give you a probable pass. You come back, be back in 30 days. So I know when I come back to see him, I got 30 days to come back to see him. That means I got 29 days, Matt, to get gone and get gone where I'm going and not coming back from.
Starting point is 00:38:40 Right. So I basically went home, see my mom for a couple days. I was like, she's like, what are you going to do? I'm like, I'm going to run. This is what I'm going to do. I'm not staying here. What about, why not get a job? I'm just curious.
Starting point is 00:38:58 Mindset at that moment was that I'm not getting a job. I'm not going back to making minimum wage. And they were talking about probation. You're going to have to pay this fee, that fee, this fee, that fee. I'm like, holy shit. It's funny. The states always charge you. The federal feds don't charge you, but the state does.
Starting point is 00:39:16 Yeah, so by the time I'm like, I'm thinking, I'm like, 90% of my income is going to go back to the state here. I'm never, I'm never going to make it. Right. What about an ID? Are you thinking, like, how are you thinking you're going to pull this off? So I don't have any really money, right? So I call him Bunny Nick. I'm like, he's like, do you come out to Vegas?
Starting point is 00:39:34 He's like, I'm busting checks already. I'm like, I'll be there. Oh, Nick. I'm got him. I'm right there. So I fucking. I now I've got a 20-day lead so I have to be back to probation so I know so I get to Vegas I take a Greyhound because I don't want to take an airline because I want
Starting point is 00:39:54 to records you go up Greyhound you pay cash for a ticket right took a three-day Greyhound to get to Vegas I get to Vegas and Nick's got a check scam just booming it's like getting in how you fit in let's go let's go make money what's he doing so what we're doing is he's going around he's getting homeless guys my God and And he's cleaning them up, and he's taking them to, like, the casino in places like that. And, you know, using them to cash in, because casinos will give you free play when you cash in your check there. They'll also give you, like, sometimes a 10% bonus or 10%, you know, Vig or whatever. Just to get your, what's, what's, I'm back?
Starting point is 00:40:35 Just to, they want your, like, just to get you to come straight from work to give us your paycheck. And blow it here at the casino. Exactly. So he's taking these homeless guys, cleaning them up, taking them around. He's got an ID machine. He's got, you know, he's got a printer. He's making bus and checks. And he's just like, we're just getting routing numbers and accounting numbers.
Starting point is 00:40:58 And he's just taking them. And we're just going from Vegas all the way up to Reno and just hitting them, hitting them, hit them, hit them, hit them. So how much was each homeless guy worth? Probably, probably 10 to 15 grand. I can't believe. It's really the casinos. They're the bad, and they threw you in prison. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:20 It's really them. They're horrible. They are. I agree to this day. But how much does a homeless guy get? You know, we would get a check for like 500 bucks because we'd always keep them small amounts. So you go up there and they cash them. And what we would do is, so imagine this.
Starting point is 00:41:38 We would pull into Reno. We'd find a homeless guy. You know, we go to a hotel, get him cleaned up. Nick would run a Walmart, grab some clothes, some cheap Walmart clothes, you know, khakis, polo, so he looks decent. Yeah. Nick drives up. I'll walk in with the guy.
Starting point is 00:41:56 I'll go stand over and just keep an eye out. And he'll go and he'll go start, you know, he'll start cashing the check. And then go meet me in the bathroom, because there's the camera's in the bathroom, hand me the money. And then, you know, tell him to go back outside. side to the car, you know what I mean? 15, 20 minutes later, I come right back out to the car, go to the next casino, and just keep doing this over and over again.
Starting point is 00:42:21 And because the thing is, is they're not going to pay attention to it if it's one name, right? It's one name. And then the thing is, is half the times we wouldn't have to make IDs. They would just use the homeless because homeless guys, crazy as them to themselves. They don't have, they have IDs. Yeah, they don't, they don't care. Like, they're thinking by the end of the day, if they're,
Starting point is 00:42:41 going to cash 10 of these, they're going to get $5,000. You're going to give them, what, $1,000? Yeah, some like $1,000, a couple hundred bucks each check. They're going to, they're going to be set. They're not thinking. They're not thinking about tomorrow. They're not thinking about next week. I've got to spend a month in jail.
Starting point is 00:42:56 Right, right. And so this goes on. And I remember, like, when Friday night, we were, like, looking for, we, we didn't have routing account numbers. We were out. So we're, like, one behind this, like, check a cash place. or like inside the dumpster of like digging through
Starting point is 00:43:12 looking for receipts looking for paperwork looking for anything here comes a cop car down so me and Nick are like crouched inside this dumpster like hiding right
Starting point is 00:43:23 cops just like driving by and I'm thinking and at this time already I've already not showed back up for probation so I already know I got a warrant for probation dangling over my head
Starting point is 00:43:33 and I'm like it's like I gotta get the fuck out of here and I had no excuse man because I had saved a bunch of money right I could ran the plan was make a bunch of money with Nick and I was gonna just go disappear well you get the adrilling
Starting point is 00:43:49 and rush them more and more and more and it's working you start feeling invincible like I can't be stopped you know and then we end up going into this one little little spot up near Elko and man we go in this and we get a hotel room
Starting point is 00:44:04 and we go out and it's so easy to find guys out there like that you know walking around, hey man, you want to make some money? And the guy's like, what are you going to do? I'm like, just come with us and cash some checks. So we didn't do it. And we get to like the third casino. And I see like something's not right.
Starting point is 00:44:24 Like the guys like standing there too long. You know what I mean? And next day I know I see these security guards come up and they grab him. Well, time to run again. Right. That's, yep, time to go. So I'm like, look, get back a car. Nick, we got to go.
Starting point is 00:44:41 I mean, we're going to leave him, you know. So we're like literally driving back to his hotel. And like, we get back to his hotel and we got all this, we have checks here. We got IDs. We got, you know, money started out. Like, we're like throwing stuff in the car complete. It's not going to be long until. Yeah, I was going to say, does a homeless guy know where you guys were out of?
Starting point is 00:45:01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we take him there to clean him up. Yeah, yeah. So it's not going to be long. And here comes the, here comes the troops. Yeah. And, like, but the thing was, Nick would always go get them their own room. So they, he didn't know which room that we were in.
Starting point is 00:45:15 We were just there. Right. Or sometimes he would act like we, you know, oh, yeah, this is our room here. You're what I mean? And so all of a sudden, we're sitting there and we just look out the window. We see these two cop cars pull up. I'm like, and we're like in the window just like looking out. And we can see the, we can see the homeless guy in the back of the car.
Starting point is 00:45:36 I'm like, oh, God, this is not good. That room right there. And they go to the room that we get for him. And we're in the other room, like right there from God. I don't know that Nick's got a gun. Oh, this is getting worse. And so Nick's got a gun. And I'm like, what's you going to do with a gun?
Starting point is 00:45:53 Did they go shoot out with the cops? Like, what are you doing? That's a Wild West, bro. Like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm going back to prison, bro. I'm like, oh my God, this is where life ends for me. Like, I'm like, this is crazy. Why do you have this?
Starting point is 00:46:08 What are you doing? Just put that shit away. Like, we're going to, we're going to walk out of here, and we're going to get the car and drive away. We waited for, like, an hour. Because they went and they looked through the room, they looked around. They couldn't figure it out.
Starting point is 00:46:21 You know what I mean? Where we're at. So, basically, they laughed. They felt the guy was maybe just lying. Maybe he didn't really have accomplices. You know what I mean? Right. Whatever.
Starting point is 00:46:28 We leave. I'm like, we get back to Vegas, and I'm like, and Nick's like, oh, we'll figure something else. And I was like, you know, I'm going to figure something out. away from you because like I didn't know that you were going to go to that extreme like it's one thing it's like checks and stuff like like dude I'm not trying to have a shootout with cops yeah like this dude like like let's come on man this ain't no so like it was like the classic end of a great movie with us like we're like he's gonna go this way I'm gonna go this way Nick like it's been
Starting point is 00:46:59 fun man but I got me away from you so I'm like I got I have I have money so I got a nice chunk of money saved. I'm like, I need to get... What's a long second? Probably close to 200. Oh, okay. That is a nice. I mean, for me, more than I thought, yeah. Yeah, yeah, because I was, I was just stacking it up. Right. So I go to Mexico. I crossed the border. I'm like, I'm just going to, my plan is I'm going to Tijuana. I'm going to hang out here and I'm going to drop down
Starting point is 00:47:28 eventually down and just hang out because I know I've charges now. I've gotten, I've figured I've gotten charges. I know I got at least a minimum. I'm, I'm not coming back. So how do you, when you say, what do you just walk across the border? So with Greyhound back of the day, they would literally drive you, because that was before the, before they passed the laws where you had to do your passport, immigration card, you know what I mean? You literally just walk across the border.
Starting point is 00:47:54 Nice. So, so I'm in Tijuana. I'm like in revolution, right off revolution, which is like the big party strip. I find a house that's not like a apartment. complex and it's like it's all a bunch of Americans that are living there and they're all living their rent super cheap and working in San Diego and they're just crossing the border like every morning in San Diego if you look at the border the line is wrapped around the run because people live in Tijuana and work in San Diego because of the cost of living I find this house
Starting point is 00:48:28 as apartment complex and the lady's like oh yeah you back $200 I'm thinking she's like $200 a week she's like $200 a month I'm like, oh, well, here, you know what I mean? No problem. Here's a couple months of worth of rent. So I'm, like, hanging out, and I meet guys in there, and I'm like, I got to get an ID. And you can start talking to people, and it doesn't take a long, you know, to get an ID. Right.
Starting point is 00:48:49 And is this, you're getting a, um, a fake ID. A fake, I know, but is it, is it a U.S. ID? Yeah, like a state. Yeah, just state, California. Okay. And so, you know, he takes me to this little shop, a couple hundred bucks later. He's like, yeah. He said, I'm like, I'm like,
Starting point is 00:49:05 Like, yeah, he's like, he said, this is good for you just have this for, you know, for down here. He's like, but if you try to cross the border with it, it's not going to work. And I mean, this is good for just here. Like, all right, he was working on getting me a really good one for I could use a whole one to travel back and forth. Well, I'm there, man, for like two months. And I start noticing, like, the Mexican, the police are watching me more and more. And I start getting nervous because I'm like, I'm hearing about all these Americans getting kidnapped, you know, either cartel or whoever.
Starting point is 00:49:36 And I'm like, I'm hanging out down there. I'm hanging out at the bar every night. And I'm spending money. I'm flashing money. I'm like, this is not good. I'm going to, something's going to happen. Either I'm going to get kidnapped. We get robbed.
Starting point is 00:49:47 You know what I mean? So I decide, I'm going to go back across the border. So I just, I had my buddy just drive me back across the border. And I'm like, I got to hope my ID. And I know I'm going to use my real ID. So I'm praying they don't actually run it. because they run it, I'm done. Right.
Starting point is 00:50:05 So, like, we go with, like, a busy kind of time, and we're just sitting there looking like, oh, yeah, just came back from Mexico, and they just look at us, like, go ahead, U.S. citizens, go ahead. I got lucky. All right. I get across the border. Well, I'm back in California.
Starting point is 00:50:19 So I'm like, what am I going to do? I still have a little bit of money, you know what I mean? But I can't, I can't, I'm going to get a job now. Now I'm going to go get a job. I didn't get a job then. What I'm going to do now? So I go back to what I know. I go back to, I call a magazine crew.
Starting point is 00:50:35 I'm like, hey, you're looking for somebody? You know, sell magazines? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They send me a ground ticket. Next thing I know, I'm back on the ground. I go to a magazine, I'm selling magazines. And I'm walking around. I have this, remember, I have this fake ID.
Starting point is 00:50:50 Right. This one fake ID. So I'm using this. And I go for like a year, man, working to sell magazines, just hanging out doing the magazine crew. And I know I've got, you know, shit in Florida. I've got warrants, you know, in Virginia, you know what I mean? I'm like, I know if I mentioned I'm going to get called, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:51:08 Yeah. And one faithful day, I knock on the door and I'm like, hey, we're selling magazines, and it was a cop. Right. And he was like, what are you doing? He's like, oh, I'm selling a magazine. Well, you have a permit? I'm like, permit, what's a permit? And the guy's like, oh, you need a permit to do this.
Starting point is 00:51:26 Like, I mean, I don't know. I work for this guy. I was like, this is the permit they said I need to have. And I was like, nah, man, this is, nah. Now, we've heard about you guys coming and scam. And you know what I mean? Because it's all a big scam, right? But you get, they pay you some money.
Starting point is 00:51:43 They never get a magazine. No, no, no, no. No, the scam always was, was with the magazines door to door was you would tell them, you would say, hey, you're going, hey, the person, I'm going to school in the area. I'm, you know, I'm working to go out to win a trip somewhere, blah, blah, blah. Right. I was always a big guy, right? So I was like, yeah, I'm going to coronary school.
Starting point is 00:52:03 I'm going to be a chef. I was like, you know why you can't ever trust a skinny chef, right? And they're like, well, why is that? Because they don't eat their own food. I ate my own food. You can trust me, right? You'll get your magazine. And the guy was like, and they're paying like $40 for these magazines.
Starting point is 00:52:14 They're overpriced magazines. But it's like when you buy stuff from kids from fundraisers, right? It's overpriced. Well, they never give them a magazine. You're getting a cut off of the money. And these guys are making bank. Right. And they've got, you know, 30, 40 kids working for them.
Starting point is 00:52:31 And they're not going in front. They're not knocking on the doors. They don't have to do anything but kick back. Then we kick back. And then they got, and the thing is, at the end of the day, all these kids, you've got 20, 30 kids making, you know, $5, 600 a day for you. It adds up very quickly. Right.
Starting point is 00:52:44 I knock on the door and the cops like, you know, man, where's your ID? And I gave him this ID. The fake one? Yeah. I mean, I can't. I'm going to get my real one. I didn't even carried my real one with me. I always left the little one at the hotel.
Starting point is 00:52:56 What state are you in? Still California? No, I'm in Boise, Idaho. Oh, there's a chance he doesn't even know what a California ID looks like. Right, right, right. Well, he runs it. He runs it, and he runs it, and he goes, and it comes back on not file, not on file. Right.
Starting point is 00:53:12 He's like, that's weird. He said, you at least come back on file. I was like, I don't know. I don't know, man. I don't know. He's like, so he almost lets me go. Like, at that point where he almost lets me go. Right.
Starting point is 00:53:24 And he's like. something to say he's sitting right with this man hold on he calls he calls down to the station they send a unit they bring him in and ask me they ask me my name my birthday what's not coming up in the system so they're like come on we're just going to run your prints real quick man you know and I'm like up I'm done and so they're like they get me in the car and they're like last chance tell us who you really are I'm like all right Charles Hartman in 119 I mean they're like oh Ding! Positive 51! Ding! Positive 51! Warrant! Active Warrant! Transportational Warrant. Oh, this is Florida, dude. They probably ain't going to come get you. Why didn't you just tell us, man? I was like, I don't know. I was like, yeah. They're going to come get me. Yeah, they're going to come get me. And he's like... And so they take me to the Boise Jail, and I go in front of the judge and sign up the little thing, you know, to get transferred back to Florida. They said, well, they have 30 days to come get you. If they don't get you, you'll get released.
Starting point is 00:54:29 Nice. I'm like, okay. So, 28 days go by. I'm like, yes, I'm getting out of here, man,
Starting point is 00:54:35 I'm getting out of here. 29 days go by. I'm like counting it on the head, right? It's the 30th day. They're like, Hartman,
Starting point is 00:54:42 roll it up. I'm like, but usually if they're taking you down to be transported, right, they'll cuff you. They tell you to roll it up and roll up all the way.
Starting point is 00:54:52 That means you're leaving. Right. They tell me roll it up all the way. I thought maybe up. That's right. out of here. I'm, nope, I'm good. I'm walking down, round the corner, see two friendly, smiling detect us from Lake County. You're like, hey, Charlie.
Starting point is 00:55:08 I'm like, son of a bitch. I knew, I knew I was done. So, and look, I was like, oh, look, they got their job to do. They're not, they're not, they're not trying no problems. Yeah. It is, they're like, look, man, we'll take you, we get you something neat. We're going, we're going to, we're going to, I was like, we're driving back to Florida? I'm like, no, we're flying. I'm like, okay. I'm like, but we're going to Cleveland first. I was like, I don't have charges in Cleveland?
Starting point is 00:55:32 Like, what are we talking about? He's like, no, he's like, the way we work, man, is when we pick you guys up like this and you guys are spread out like this, we'll pick up a second one in another city to make it worth, you know what I mean? Yeah. The trip.
Starting point is 00:55:44 I'm like, okay, so we get to Cleveland. We fly. So we get into, first we get to Boise at the airport. And man, like, you're talking about walking straight on to a plane? Like you're a rock star? Yeah, I was straight on there. Nobody's on the plane. We're sitting there.
Starting point is 00:55:58 One's here. One's behind me. They uncuff me. And they're like, look, just don't give us no problems, man. I'm like, look, look. They're like, oh, yeah, you're probably not going to get that much time anyway. They don't know the case. They just know it's probation violation.
Starting point is 00:56:11 Yeah. Yeah, they don't know, like, I'm fitting to get, I'm going to get murdered when he back. And he's like, all right, cool, man. Just go to, you know, just be cool, man. We get the Cleveland. They're being real relaxed to me. We pull into this, the Cleveland.
Starting point is 00:56:26 the Cleveland jail. When I tell you, I was the only white dude there, it was not a good situation. And I was like, oh, this is not good. They didn't want to leave me. Like, they're like, oh,
Starting point is 00:56:40 oh, sorry. Well, we'll have McDonald's in the morning for you, kid. Good luck. I'm like, son of it. But not, go in, everything's fine. It's just normal jail, right? Well, they go to release me out in the morning to come downstairs.
Starting point is 00:56:56 Well, they didn't screw it up with the paperwork. They put me in the release pile to release me to the street. So I'm about ready to go to the streets of Cleveland when I'm supposed to be putting in a holding cell. Right. So I'm in this, like, group, and they're letting us out five at a time. And I'm like, holy shit, I'm about ready to go. I don't know what I'm going to do.
Starting point is 00:57:19 But I was like, I can't get in trouble. They let me go. Right. Like, I'm not, I'm not escaping. they're telling me to leave I'm not gonna stay here so I'm like talking to this guy man you live right here he's like yeah it's like
Starting point is 00:57:32 man if I gave you a couple hundred bucks or something man can you take me to your guy can use your phone I can get some money wired to me and stuff and everything he's like it's like I ain't supposed to be getting released right now he's like yeah I got you I mean like criminals are always like you can tell someone will help you you know what I mean
Starting point is 00:57:49 yeah so it's like all right so I'm sitting there and there's like slow letting everybody out and it's down to like me and like two other people and they're like what's your name like uh hartman like yeah i got got a member rides waiting for me he's like they're like no no man you're up here's to be over there kid so they take me they take me in and put me in a cell and i'm in there with this other guy and he's the guy we came to pick up so so i'm sitting there i'm laughing because they come they come like 15 20 minutes later they put handcuffs take us there they fly us to a lambie
Starting point is 00:58:24 And I told him, I was like, I was like, what are you going to do? I was like, dude, I was going to run. What do you mean was I going to do? I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to figure it out. I ain't going to be here for y'all. So, do you know how much paperwork and hell this would have been? I was like, yeah, but it would have been fun.
Starting point is 00:58:39 Yeah. So I get there and, man, I get to, I get to, I get to Lake County. And I mean, I know I'm done, right? I know I've got to spend a sentence. I already know what time. I know I'm minimum, I'm getting 20. You know, I got other charges I've called. I mean, in between, you know what they're going to do. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like, well, yeah, I already had my mind. Like, this is it. You know what I mean? You know, you know, and my lawyer, he comes down and he's just like, just hang out, just chill. New lawyer? Or same lawyer? Same lawyer. Same lawyer. He's like, just relax. He's like, yeah, he's like, he's like, I want to, he said, you know, he's like, he said, give me 10. He said, if you give me 10, I promise you, you, you,
Starting point is 00:59:24 will not, you will not, you will not, you will not do all that time. So I call my mom. She arranged it, got into the money. And I'm thinking, I'm like, man, this better, this better work. And he's like, he's like, yeah, he's like, I think I can get us, I think he gets you just the 20. I'm like, gave you 10. What do you mean? I was like, maybe he was, he was screwing with me. He knew what he had already done. Right. He's like, just, just hang out. He said, oh, we'll go to court, we'll go to court, we're going to court. I'm like, in my mind, said, I'm already, all right, I'm fitting to go. I know I'm going back to prison.
Starting point is 01:00:03 You're going to be at least, you know, 20. I'm just going to, you know, because at that point, I mean, what are you going to do? You have no defense. Right. You have no defense. There's no, there's no, there's no, it's not like I'm sorry for what I did. You know, I won't that I can't say those people are like, oh, I'm so sorry, I did that, Your Honor.
Starting point is 01:00:19 I'm like, really. They don't, they don't, they don't, that doesn't, they don't. That doesn't affect him. No, no. They hear that every day. They hear that 40 times a day with people that are much better at crying and pleading and have real excuses. Right. I was like, I was an asshole.
Starting point is 01:00:37 That was my excuse, Your Honor. I like, and so I was like, man, I was like, man, let me just go in here. Let me just did this. And we get in there and they pulls us aside. And they would have, they had these like cells were like cage cells where you could talk to your attorney. Yeah. And first thing he goes in, he says, when you get inside, you say, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, and shut the F up. Like, I was like, well, I thought I'm, I thought I'm just going to have Judge Hill.
Starting point is 01:01:05 So what am I selling Judge Hill a woman for? He's like, Judge Hill's not in there. Just be quiet. Judge Hill and Lake County, Florida is famous. They call him Hang him High Hill. Right. He loves giving him sentences out. He gives decades out.
Starting point is 01:01:18 He said literally in his campaign to be judge, he'll give him a million years out. before he retires. Yeah, I've heard about this guy. Yeah, and I think he's given out more than a million dollars, more than a million, though. Yeah, so. His goal was, I wanted to, his goal was I want to give out more than, I plan on giving out more than a million years,
Starting point is 01:01:37 and he's actually surpassed that, way, way past that. Yeah, so I, so I know, like, I know the judge, I know the prosecutor, I know what's going to happen to me. Well, I'm sitting there, man, I'm like, man, it's going on her, and I know it's a female judge, young, young female. judge too like she just got appointed and it's a different prosecutor and they're like mr hartman here's um and he's for saying all these affidavits over and all this all paperwork over
Starting point is 01:02:06 and everything and all these witnesses and everything and I'm like of my character and how I've changed my life none of what you had none of I have I'm like there was a there was a thing from the pastor and I'm like what is this like oh mr. Hartman I see you know you're really trying to change your life and we're going to go on the sentencing guidelines and the sentencing guidelines guided out the four years department of corrections um with time served all i had to do is going to do my four years so wait wait and that that would end the probation because because yeah because he found a loophole in the way the probation was written so they went back and they originally sent us to me just to four years so i'm getting four years with time credited from the
Starting point is 01:02:53 county time. So I got like three years ago to do when I go home. Right. I'm like, I can't sign this fast enough. I'm like, yes, ma'am, and we're going to put you in drug court when you go in. I'm like, yes, ma'am, make the best of your life. Yes, ma'am. I'm out of the door.
Starting point is 01:03:10 I'm like, and like when you're, like, I'm like sitting there like skipping back across the thing and I was like, what, what happened? I thought you were going to get time. I was like, man, I don't know. He's like, that's crazy. crazy. He said, I wouldn't say another when you go inside, I mean, because everyone
Starting point is 01:03:26 don't think you snitched. There's no way that your sentence gets converted down on that cheap. So I was like, yeah, you're right. So I started thinking about it. I was like, I ain't going to say nothing. You know what I mean? Yeah. Just got 20. Yeah, I'm just going to go just, yeah, just, you know, because when I think it's that kind of time, you don't ask them
Starting point is 01:03:42 like how to, how to go. Right. You know, so I just kind of saw them just sitting around. And I was waiting to go to prison. Because I figured I was going on the prison run that week. Well, the prison run goes, comes. they don't take me. I'm like, this is weird. I should be, I should be back at a, I should be back at a, a landau, you know, today.
Starting point is 01:04:02 Well, the following week comes, that Thursday comes, and I get called back to court. I'm like, this is weird. Like, why am I going back to court? Like, I don't have cases here. Well, I get to end up calling in and Judge Hill's there. He's sitting there. He asked me where my attorney was, and I was like, I don't know. I ain't seen him since last week.
Starting point is 01:04:25 I never plan to see him again, to be honest with you. He's like, well, Mr. Hartman, I don't know what your attorney did. I'll have a word with him later. But if I ever see you back in my court again, don't plan to leave. It's like, okay. Okay, yes, sir. He said, if I ever see you back in the court again, he said, you won't be going home. Right.
Starting point is 01:04:52 I'm like, he got pissed because my attorney did was he moved. He had the case moved to a different judge for sentencing, and it moved when he was on vacation because he was on vacation a week before. Right. He was supposed to originally sentenced me that Thursday. He got it moved to a different judge. And so, and once you're sentenced, you can't be sentenced again. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:14 It's done. Like, so I end up going, I end up going, and I end up going out, and then they tell me, oh, you. you have a charge in Putton County for a check from my old check that popped up you have to go up and deal with that so they sent me up there and then I end up dealing with that they ran it concurrent they're like okay you're just going to go you'll go to Lake County from here and you'll start your prison time well I go to prison Lake County way different than Orlando that's for sure if you've ever heard Lake Butler CI yeah it's not the place to be no no and the judge has put it in my file I'm a menace. Right. And I need special treatment. So they were special to like be really, really nice to you?
Starting point is 01:06:01 Oh, the hands on treatment. They want to make sure they want to make sure I adjusted well. Right. Yeah. So first couple, first couple days of just getting smacked around in the face and just, and what can you do? You can't, we don't fell out of form, complained to somebody. Like, no. Right.
Starting point is 01:06:19 You're going to take this, shut up. So I'm sitting here and I'm, I'm supposed to score out to like minimum, like minimum security. I'm just able to be able to go to work release. Right. No, no. He sent me to FSP. Okay. Florida State Penitentiary.
Starting point is 01:06:37 This is the same place where they have death row. Right. They sent me to a max institution. I'm like, oh, he's a nonviolent. Nonviolent person. They're just sticking it to me. Right. I get off the bus and the guy's looking at me.
Starting point is 01:06:51 He's like, who did you piss off? Because there's no way you're supposed to be here. Right. Well, your scores are too low. Like I went to a medium, I scored out to a camp. Right. But in my case, I had too much time to go to a camp. You only got four years.
Starting point is 01:07:06 Right. I'm supposed to go to a work camp, work for six to nine months, and then go outside the gate, work there, and then eventually go to work release. All right. No, he made sure that didn't happen. What did Zach's, one of the guards? or the guy, one of the guards in S-I-S in the, um, Zach's case, put down that he was like,
Starting point is 01:07:29 not a gang member, something, oh, that he was a sovereign citizen. So they, they moved him to a pen because these guys file paperwork and give everybody a hard time. So you're a sovereign citizen, you might as well be like a violent gang member. You're done. You're a troublemaker. So he must have said something. Yeah, oh, he put the paperwork. He, I was completely screw job.
Starting point is 01:07:48 So, you know, so I'm, I go in there. And, Matt, to be honest with you, when I got there, nothing really changed. Because I was just like, okay, now I'm thinking three years, I'm back out. Right. Be back to my normal shit. You know what I mean? Figure out what else. I'm going to get to do.
Starting point is 01:08:02 Well, this time now I'm going to have probation. So start all over again. And it was to a point where I got, I looked up on an old timer named Joe. And he started really talking to me. And he was like, man, you realize you're doing a life sentence, right? Like, what do you mean? No, I'm not. I'm getting out in three years.
Starting point is 01:08:24 What are you talking about? He's like, no, man, you're three years here, two years here, three. You're just doing it on the installment plan. You should just go ahead and go out and murder somebody and get it over with and come back. And then that way we'll be roommates forever. All right. Like, fuck. Like, you started dawning on me.
Starting point is 01:08:39 Like, I've got to turn this shit around. Like, I got to figure out how to use my brain from 14 to now has been how to scam. And I got to figure out how to do it different. Right. and how to scam better or how to do life better both okay but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but the legal scam okay find the right way to do it and and he's like dude dude you're like a salesman you're at the right to sell me you should be in sales and I'm like I didn't even think about it you know what I mean like I'm like I was like I was like I need I need a fresh start
Starting point is 01:09:16 I'm finishing my sentence they're asking me where I want to go So I want to go to Vegas. I was like, because I'm like, at least there I know it's a 24-hour city. You know Nick? No, Nick's there. No, Nick's gone. Nick's gone. Where's Nick?
Starting point is 01:09:33 Whatever happened to Nick? You don't know? No, I'm good friends. He's in New York. He's still, he's in New York. Yeah. He's hanging out. And he's a guest of the state.
Starting point is 01:09:42 Right. Okay. But he, but I knew Vegas very well. Right. I didn't want to go back home to Roanoke because I was like, I'll be around the same friends, same stuff. If I go to Vegas, I could start fresh. It's a 24-hour city. I'm not going to have a driver's license so I can get around on the bus. You know what I mean? And I knew I knew some people, you know what I mean? So I figured it was a good place to get a fresh start. Right.
Starting point is 01:10:05 So like this time I go and I go to a halfway house, I go to a program. And like, and I get there and I'm like, man, I started realizing, like, I can't change. I can, I just got to turn this in a way to start hustling. Right. And I ended up working like two jobs, two dead-end jobs, just to making money, just trying to figure it out. Yeah. And I ended up hooking up with a guy that ended up selling satellites door to door.
Starting point is 01:10:36 I was like, I already knew I could sell, you know, doing the magazine thing. That's a scam. So I started working for direct TV. And he gave me a job because his brother had been arrested and went to prison and got out and nobody would give him a job. Right. It's the only reason he gave me a job. And, like, in the first year, I made $150,000.
Starting point is 01:10:55 Holy shit. So on direct tests. Direct TV and DISH Network door to door. Because you're in Vegas, nobody wants to knock in Vegas. Right. Because it's 100 degrees. You know, I'm getting $3 to $500 a deal, you know, on closing deals. I'm just, like, just, I turn my addictive personality into something else completely different.
Starting point is 01:11:17 And then I just started, man, I'd start hustling. Like, I'd start hustling doing it that way. And I was like, okay, I don't have to scam. I was like, this is too much money. I can turn around. And I'd always been a fan of, like, I had always, when I was younger, a fan of pro wrestling, right? And so me and my buddy was like, we could start, you know, doing these little wrestling shows and these little fundraisers and stuff. And there's so much money in sponsorships and sales.
Starting point is 01:11:45 I said, we started doing that and we started killing it. We ran a company for three years and we were making $200,000. I mean, it was great. Right. And it was just, you know, white, you know, it was just like,
Starting point is 01:11:59 man, it was just like nothing could go wrong. You know what I mean? Like I was like, life was perfect, man. I had a good little business going. I was going legit. You know, I'd gotten past the three years,
Starting point is 01:12:10 the three years of, you know, usually they say within three years you're going to go back to prison. and I ended up meeting an amazing girl and it wasn't without her, I would be done. Like, I would have went back. I would have slipped back into something. I know.
Starting point is 01:12:26 And, you know, so I'm in Philly. And the crazy thing is, like, I take an Uber, right? And I'm like taking an Uber to go to an event. And the Uber driver cancels and then she pops up. This girl pops up and pulls up. She says, I'm Jessica, I'm your Uber driver. I'm like, okay, great. I'm talking to her
Starting point is 01:12:46 next time I'm talking she's driving me out back up the hotel and I'm like what are you doing tonight she's like what do you mean I was like you want to go get a drink it's like early
Starting point is 01:12:54 it's like 10 o'clock she's like I can't do that I'm your Uber driver I was like who is there a code of conduct are you violating the rules here like I was like
Starting point is 01:13:06 you don't want to you don't want to get a one star review here right and she's like fuck you so we want to start having a couple drinks and next thing you know I'm flying back to Philly all the time
Starting point is 01:13:16 seeing her and we end up getting engaged and got married. Okay. So life was good, man. She was the reason and then even when things got tough, like, you know, when COVID came and we all lost everything
Starting point is 01:13:32 because I was doing live events. So I'm doing multiple live events. I'm done. So like, what's my mind think now? Let's go back to scams. Yeah, yeah. We'll go back to scams. We'll figure out.
Starting point is 01:13:43 scam or something to do she's like fuck you are doing that she's like you're not doing that she's like so you've gone too far and and the crazy thing was is well I was in Vegas one of the jobs I had for like a week or two I worked for a sports betting company and they would call and they would sell sports betting advice to different people like that wanted to buy they would call people call in hey who should I bet on the New York Knicks or the Orlando Magic tonight when I think about that I think about the movie, two for the money or something? Yeah, yeah, very much so, yes, sir. Okay.
Starting point is 01:14:18 So the, so I was like, man, I was like, I always had fun doing that job. That was a fun job for a couple weeks. Call around. I called around and finally found this, I found this ad of this guy, and he was like, yeah, you know, a handicapped or blah, and he's like, all right, cool, let me get you in contact with the manager. And he's like, can you work virtually? yeah I'll start to tomorrow and he was just like I mean I knew nothing about sports
Starting point is 01:14:47 sports betting right like you know besides you know why when I was in prison I learned about sports betting like in prison people sports bet and for tunas and laundry the ticket the ticket man you know what I mean and so so the guy was like I was like just follow the script and I follow the script and start working and next day I'm working like 18 19 hours a day just like I'm working all night like because sports gambling like We had to cut my phone up because it's dingy, right? Yeah, yeah. And it's like because, you know, you got West Coast, you know,
Starting point is 01:15:17 and then I'm working for, like, some of the best handicappers in the country. So I got clients calling me all the time, wanting to buy packages and services and different stuff. And now I've been there four years. And now I run my own thing. My own thing is an independent contractor now. And it's been a, it's pretty an amazing run. Through the guy you started with or separately?
Starting point is 01:15:40 Basically, I started with him and then kind of branched with my own and did my own thing. And he basically just backed me completely. It was like, yeah, he's like, you've outgrown as being here. Right. So you run your own thing. And this year, I've made a half a million dollars doing sports betting advice. I mean, it's great, man. I mean, it's, I found a way to turn my addictive personality into something that's legal to make money.
Starting point is 01:16:07 and how do you get do the advertising yourself or does he do it or so so um it's a it's a joint operation so like one of the services we work for is a multi they do advertising and then they'll send clients and then they'll get a percentage of it it's kind of like a franchisee right and then then i can do my own advertising i want but i have enough clients through their funnel don't need to all right so yeah it works good All right. I've got a few questions. The new BMO, V.I. Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more.
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Starting point is 01:17:12 Sure. And this is just for me going through some of your videos. Yeah. So do you want to talk about the target stealing scam or there's something in the story behind that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about the, yeah, I was going to say, we need the death certificate scam. Yeah, I have that. Death certificate.
Starting point is 01:17:30 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you want to start with Target. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, so I was like, I was like 19 years old and I went and got a job at Target. And it was supposed to be just as a simple, a little job just to make some money. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:17:50 And it was more just honestly to get my mom off my ass because I was doing checks and I was doing shit. And I was doing the warranty stuff. And I just needed a job. So the guy walks in, the guy's like, hey, uh, man, you're a pretty big-sized guy. you want to work in loss prevention. I'm like, sure, what do I got to do? He's like, oh, you just walk around, act like you're shopping, you know what I mean? And everything.
Starting point is 01:18:13 And then, and you just basically catch people shoplifting. Like, okay. All right. It's easy. Like, so within like a couple of weeks, they are having me close the store at night time. Boy. That was a mistake. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:18:27 So we used to care. We used to shop. We'd always bring our merchandise back to our office back, right? and we dump it in our office. And then they just put it back out again. They'd put it back out again. And I was like, wait. It's like, huh, no one's really going to see.
Starting point is 01:18:44 I'm in the one room in here that doesn't have a camera. But I just take this merchandise and put it in my bag. Right. No one's going to notice that. So I would literally just take the merchandise and I would, I'd open these CDs and DVDs and it's just, you know, stack, and have stacks of book bag, you know, book bag of stuff, you know, PlayStation's and whatever, and just walk right out the door, right out of the front door.
Starting point is 01:19:11 I would always take out the little tag so it wouldn't beep. Right. And then, like, I remember, like, I took the, there was, like, a little ceiling tile. Right. And I took the ceiling tiles, and I would show up the stuff up in the ceiling tiles, and I would just leave it up there. And eventually, when they said, eventually, eventually what happened was they actually put in a little, I guess I had missed one of the magnets
Starting point is 01:19:35 and I went out of the doors and my bag beeped and I just kept walking and the manager seen it was like that's weird I was like I don't know yeah maybe maybe something I bought a drinker or something earlier I don't know but it just made him think it's like why did it beep
Starting point is 01:19:51 right it was just that one moment you know what I mean so they ended up putting in a camera inside the lost prevention off room just they don't trust you at all No. That's so... Why would you?
Starting point is 01:20:06 Why would you get me any keys in the city? Like, why? I was like, you're so in stupidity. So, so that Friday night, I'd do my normal deal, walk out the door, Saturday morning. I walk in and come to work, I walk right in, there's two cops, and there, and regular, and then my boss, and then his boss, and all the little plastics from up and the ceilings laying on the table and they're like so what do you want to talk about i was i don't know so they're like look look we're not going to press charges just sign this saying that you stole
Starting point is 01:20:46 this stuff so we can turn this into the insurance company so we can get reimbursed right that's all they care about yeah they don't they don't care about the prosecution what they just want to be able to turn it in because i had stolen so much of they it was affecting their quarterly sales right they're like they're like we got to do we got to account for this you know what I mean so yeah so that would basically yeah and that was a that was it man I probably I probably got away with thousands every week from Target for months and just just kept on banking money up what was the you have another one the bank yeah yeah I was going to say what about the birth certificate I'm sorry the death certificate thing all right so stealing dead people's
Starting point is 01:21:30 information. Yes. So my buddy worked at Oakey's funeral home, and people, he would come in and... People are dying to get in there. Yeah. It's a business that never, never quits, right? So they literally, he would always have these people come in. And when he turns into death certificates and everything, right, and then they get sent
Starting point is 01:21:52 off, you usually have a two to three week period, right, of time or until they actually file it with the state. Well, when he would, he would provide me all their information because he's got all their information. He's got their wallets there, their IDs. So he's just giving me their information. And we're just like running up credit cards and things because it's taking, remember, this isn't modern technology today where somebody dies and they can put the sit in the system and it's over, right? I mean, now back in the day, it takes days and weeks to get everything sent, right?
Starting point is 01:22:27 Well, it's funny. this is this is funny so you know when you when you die right um the there's there's there's actually a death benefit that pays to bury you it's like 350 450 so what one of the things so have you ever if you pull somebody's credit that's died this is a problem when people try and make a fake ID using a death certificate right if you pull it let's say two years later you get somebody's social security number that died and you go and you pull their credit it'll say deceased. Right. And you're like, well, how do they know that? The way they know that is when they go to the funeral home. Right. And they get their death certificate. The funeral home
Starting point is 01:23:07 sends it to the Social Security Administration to get the $450 toward the burial. And now they are notified that this person is deceased. Right. And so now when they check with Social Security, it says this is a deceased person. But that takes time. Yes. You know what I'm saying? Even if you, when they get it, they may not release that. You know, they have to cut a check that takes 30 days, 60 day, however long until they get it. Usually we had about a 90-day window. Right. But you're talking about just taking their stuff and they, you've got probably, yeah, like you said, months.
Starting point is 01:23:41 You've got months to use those credit cards. So it's a credit card company doesn't know and won't know for months, if at all. If at all. And all it's going to happen is the credit cards are going to go to that, the bills are going to go to them. But it would be even better is if you could pay the minimum payments for a couple of months to keep them open. keep a remote. I never thought it that way, but that's really, I should know you years earlier. Yeah. But, no,
Starting point is 01:24:03 and then that's what, that's what we would do. We would do that, and then we would take it, and we would just run these cards up and charges up, and then by the time it was all said and done, I mean, now all these bills are stacked up, but what are they going to do? They're going to send them to help these, this person's dead.
Starting point is 01:24:19 So the credit card company is just going to write it off. Yeah. Well, you know what, it's funny. I had, I actually had a, when I first started, I'd probably been doing it in a couple of years when I was a mortgage broker. We had a guy that we lent him, I don't know, it was nothing to. It was 50 or $75,000 for some little shithole house, right?
Starting point is 01:24:37 He was an old guy. And sure enough, four months later, and he had perfect credit. He was insane, but he had perfect credit. Nice. I remember he died, and we found out like, whatever, like a month or two later or something, he had died, and I thought,
Starting point is 01:24:54 that's funny because I thought that's funny he you know he died I wonder if you could do something with his credit right like and I thought let's pull his credit because we had pulled it you know three or four months earlier and he he had a bunch of credit cards but he had owed no money on them like a hundred bucks five hundred dollars two dollars and he had credit cards was like $20,000 limits 30,000 limits like huge limits and so when we pulled his credit we found out his kids ran up every one of his credit cards of course he has a $20,000 he has like $22,000 a $30,000 a limit it was like $31,000 so we realized too that obviously what happened was his kids realized what happened they ran up the credit cards oh yeah yeah yeah exactly
Starting point is 01:25:43 I mean because I mean and that's what we would do I mean with with him working at Oakey's I mean we're getting literally the day they're dying he's giving me their information yeah they got plenty of time yeah plenty of time so you're just you're just you're getting new credit cards in and we were we were getting credit cards we were we had a friend that worked in a loan office oh so so we're going for getting loans and i mean and then you know and then we're just we're just racking up the bills right and then you know and then we're sitting there like oh give me us you know you know get you know get their information and just keep racking it up and open up a checking account i don't know why this excites me just talking about it's me i'm all
Starting point is 01:26:19 excited um yeah okay so so so what about a rental car scam so rental car scams um very similar what you're talking about uh your your buddy yeah yeah we would we would we would get rental car scams and what we would go to the we would we were we had this technology like he did we would just roll up in there and we would find the paperwork inside and sometimes you know like a lot of times they would drop the cars off right right and you know the paperwork being inside the cars so we would grab grab the rental cars we'd also go into the going to the airport and inside the actual,
Starting point is 01:26:56 into the, where the luggage is. And we grabbed the luggage too at the same time. Just like, and just walk right out and just, like, you know what? And just go up to the lot because back then people would just drop their key
Starting point is 01:27:08 and they would have their keys inside the car. We would just grab the keys and we'd have the paper. Now you get the paperwork of, you know, all the information. Are the doors unlocked or? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, a lot of times people just leave
Starting point is 01:27:19 the doors unlocked and you're, and there's all the information on how to, you know, this car is, running under this, his cars running under that, that, and we would, we would grab it and use that to grab that information. I always wonder when the, like, you know, Jess and I have rented cars recently, and then they're like, oh, if you come after hours, just drop it in the slot, and they'll have like some little, it's almost, it's like a box, and I always wanted to like, why didn't
Starting point is 01:27:41 somebody just walk up with a crowbar, yank that box off and open it up? I mean. Or does it, or I thought, you know, or I think, well, maybe it slides down and actually goes inside or something, but, I mean, but worst comes worse of it. I mean, most of them places have got keys, right? All you're going to do with them keys is if we need you get them keys, then you get the car. What are you going to do?
Starting point is 01:28:00 You're still driving around a stolen car. You're still running a store car. You take it to chop shop and get a couple grand quickly, very quickly for a car. Yeah. I writ down. It's a long day. Forky king did. Luckily, I can edit that.
Starting point is 01:28:15 But, you know, I'll leave it in. I wrote down Wells Fargo scam. Is that related to the checks? Yes, Bob. I'll check, yeah. You were locked up with the CEO, with your CEO? Yes, yes. So, yeah, so remember earlier when I was telling you about the officers when I'm
Starting point is 01:28:34 first time I went to Lake County, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Officer Brown and Pollock. Well, I'm sitting there, and this is the craziest thing. I'm sitting there in Lake Butler. This is the second time in. I'm sitting there, and all of a sudden I look up and I see Pollock walking in. But he's not walking in and Brown.
Starting point is 01:28:52 He's walking in in blue. Right. And his face is just, it's like, why are you here? You know, because I should have went through Orlando, but I went through there. Well, he got, he ended up getting arrested after I went to prison for snuggling in contraband. Right. And he was actually in the process of going to prison. And he's like, hey, man, you got to just keep.
Starting point is 01:29:15 Right. Don't take, they'll tell them. He's like, they don't know what I'm a CEO. You know what I mean? I'm like, well, man. I'm going to give you a list. No, I'm like, man, I'm going to go tell the dude running the pod because I'm like, because I can't, it comes out, you know what I mean, I know this dude, I don't, I don't say nothing.
Starting point is 01:29:33 I'm just as guilty, you know what I mean? So very, very quickly, he actually got, was being given the list out very quickly to people. And he said, I just want to do my time. I don't want to go to Pete. Of course, of course. Yeah, yeah. I'm one of you guys. I was bringing in the stuff.
Starting point is 01:29:52 And they're like, nah, not, man. That's not how it works. But you're going to that store first thing tomorrow morning. You would take advantage of us. But the funny thing is, is when I started doing my YouTube shorts, like six months ago, right, six months ago, all of a sudden, I mean, I can share it to you guys, I'll send it to you guys so you guys can put it on the real or whatever. But like, he actually messaged me. He's out. He's like, I see, I see you talk about me on your thing.
Starting point is 01:30:19 He's like, oh, man. I was like, oh, man, you want to ask him if you want to come on the show? Yeah, you should come on the show. Yeah, for sure. I definitely will. Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, you know, it's funny, too, because every once in somebody from Coleman that was locked up will reach out to me and be like, you know,
Starting point is 01:30:35 hey, man, I was locked up. I was in C4. Remember we used to hang out here? And it's like, and you don't. Yeah, I don't remember a lot of people. I don't remember names because everybody uses them fake name. Right. And so, like, I don't remember T-Dog because I've met 50 T-Dogs or, or, or, you know,
Starting point is 01:30:50 Or what are they, or, oh, God, what's the, the big one that they, uh. Yeah, of course, you have short dogs, you have tea dogs. You have, uh, big guy. I was going to say, what's... Yeah. Oh, yeah, they've got so many names that they just reuse over and over again. It's funny, uh, Boziac mentioned the other day of some guy. They used to call, can't, uh, can't get right.
Starting point is 01:31:14 Yeah. Can't get right. What's going on? Like, because he just, no matter what he did, he just couldn't do anything right. You know, just saw. Yeah. I tried to push chainsaw. I tried, they were like,
Starting point is 01:31:23 well, what do they call you? They call me chainsaw, and they'd be like, nah, bro. They don't call you, I never got to call anything but, but Cox.
Starting point is 01:31:32 I tried to push, I tried to push chainsaw, but no, just Cox. Probably the worst I think I ever felt was the first time I went to prison. Because you know, when you get there,
Starting point is 01:31:43 you know, when you go to Lando, you get your first roommate, right? Right. Selly. You're silly, right? And everybody's on,
Starting point is 01:31:50 transit like you don't know when you're leaving you don't know where you're on your camp and everything and everyone's everybody's in the same boat where i trade you're coming from the county you're trading stamps for stuff coffee and everything and i walk in and a cell he's like he's like oh my name's tibone i'm like oh fuck here we go and you're locked in the cell with this guy for 12 13 hours a day so so i have to like you know you have to be cordial and you have to listen to them right you know even though you know they're like Well, he's telling you is bullshit. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:32:22 It doesn't make sense. You know what I mean? Whatever. And so he's like telling me how he's like the king of Miami. He's the drug lord of Miami. He's got millions of dollars. They caught me with 30 bricks of heroin. But I got a good lawyer, so only got two years.
Starting point is 01:32:38 Yeah. Yeah. So he's telling me about, hey, he's the kingpin of Miami. He's got a helicopter. And he flies privately to the Lakers games. But he's missing four teeth. Yes. And the fact that he's got no, like, no commissary money.
Starting point is 01:32:56 He's waiting for his money to come on. And I'm just sitting there like, but his stories are so entertaining. I'm like, okay, man, I've got free TV in here. So go ahead, kill me with the thing. And I'm sitting there letting him tell these stories. Well, my money hits. Well, you know, because, you know, I brought money from the county, so my money comes on. So I go get coffee and I'm going to get, you know, slides and everything.
Starting point is 01:33:20 I'm like, man, this dude ain't got no slides, he ain't got no, you know, no, no, here, man, here's the yoder, here's some slides, here's a shampoo, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? Don't use that state bar soap they gave. You use this to go, I got to be trapped in there with you. At least be clean and you're good. And he's, hey, man, can I get some coffee? You know, so yeah, my money's on the way soon. I'm like, stop. That's okay. That's okay. Just keep telling me them stories and keep my time rolling here so I can, I'm good. We're in there, and he's telling me about he had, he was driving down on the road with his brother, and he was losing street credit with his, with his crew. So he, he, him and his brother pulled up on a car, a car carriers that have like these expensive cars. And he like jumped from the truck onto the, onto the thing and like laid the thing out. And like, all right on Miami, right on the highway.
Starting point is 01:34:17 And I'm just like, this is insane. like this isn't this isn't um what is the fast and the furious um right well no there's a there's a um i don't know if you ever seen them in prison there's a there's um there's some there's there's there's books that are they're traditionally written by black authors that are urban novels urban novels yes um called a cartel hood books yes and this the guy this guy was like basically reading from one of those is he's telling me this story so i'm just like so like there two goes by and I'm like I'm hanging out with the white dudes on stairs they're just like yeah what's up with your room he's like man he's just he's the bug man don't worry about him you know I'm just I'm stuck
Starting point is 01:34:56 with him you know what I mean I haven't heard that turn in a while yeah they call it guys that are nuts I call him a bug yeah yeah and and all of a sudden here comes the next group of people in and I guess a couple dudes from his county jail recognizes him and he basically and they're like oh what's up man da da da da he's oh what's up man da da da da and and and and and and I find out he's basically it's been snitching for the past two months. Right. And now they all know he's a snitch from the county
Starting point is 01:35:25 and they're like so they come to my table where I'm at I'm playing cards and they're like, yo man we're fitting up there and tighten him up man he told him on a bunch of people from at home. I'm like what? I was like oh I thought he was a big drug deal or I'm like playing along. I thought he was like he was a man
Starting point is 01:35:41 no man. I was like I was like he's like he's like we don't take anything that's in that room. I'm like well the shit in the bottom bottom bunk but that's my shit I'm gonna go lock
Starting point is 01:35:52 that right now yeah anything else you want to go in y'all hand y'all's business so I'm gonna earn and I'm like I like my lock I said
Starting point is 01:35:58 hey man if I was you I would get on your feet man you got y'all you got some visitors coming yeah
Starting point is 01:36:03 and I walked back downstairs and all you heard and you heard is that the the sneakers the squeaking on the on the concrete yeah
Starting point is 01:36:12 a remix album you know 2.0 and it's like Like, oh my God, I come back upstairs, and he swore up and all. And they took his little stuff that I gave him, and they took his, they even took his own estate shoes and everything. He's just laying there. I was like, now what happened? He's like, man, I got to tell you, man.
Starting point is 01:36:34 I was kind of making a clue to them stories, man. Oh, man, for real? So, yeah, man, I, man, I've done a lot of bad things, man. I was like, oh, my God. Like, they're welcome to prison. It's like the Army, be whatever you want to be. Yeah. And that's, I was just like, some of the characters you meet in prison are just amazing.
Starting point is 01:36:55 Yeah, they're, they're great. It's, um, the commissary thing, it's funny. I, I had a guy, we had a guy that he kept, you know, you know, you felt your commissary list. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so he would say, yo, bro, can you get me some such and such, my money's going to hit. It's not going to hit till tomorrow, so I'm going to miss comment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So guys would mark stuff down for him.
Starting point is 01:37:16 Right. And then the commissary would come and he'd get it. And then he would say, hey, I got you. I got you on this commissary. What do I need? You got me this? I owe you a coffee and a creamer. And I also owe you this.
Starting point is 01:37:29 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to get you some M&Ms, too. I'm going to get you some. And he adds some extra of you. Oh, no, you have to do that. No, it's cool. It's cool. And then, of course, he's going to be generous because he knows he puts it into the
Starting point is 01:37:40 commissary with everybody else. The bags show up, because this is in the county. Right, right. So they wheel in all the bags. call out your name and get your bag and he would stay on there the whole time like this and then they'd be like he'd go up and say what his name is and they'd be like yeah we got nothing
Starting point is 01:37:56 for you you go and then he'd go straight to the phone pick up the phone right right right right and then he'd come and be like man you guys I'm so sorry bro I I you know they didn't send the money the guy said he didn't send it yet he's going to send it today oh man I'm so sorry no problem and then
Starting point is 01:38:11 the next week would come by right and he would But he would come out, hey, man, I got you this time. I'm going to get you this. So this happened, like, literally happened like. Actually, I think somebody did send him money one time. So he got like weeks and weeks because he did it again. Right.
Starting point is 01:38:27 And I remember he said towards the end, he's like, yo, yo, Cox, what do I owe you? I'm going to get you that bag of coffee and this. I'm like, right, right. I said, hey, and he goes, can I get you? What else can I get you? I go, get me four peanut M&Ms back. Oh, okay. And he goes, I said, you know what?
Starting point is 01:38:43 I say, go ahead and get me, you know, get me some. an extra bag of coffee. Oh, okay. Can you get me a... He's like, man, that's a lot. I said,
Starting point is 01:38:50 what does it matter, bro? I said, you're not getting any commissary. And everybody just blurss out laughing. Right, right, right. Oh, man, fuck you, bro. But sure enough, two hours later,
Starting point is 01:39:00 he was, where's my stuff? Yeah, yeah, what happened? Yeah. Which is fine. You don't have any money. You're barely getting any money in.
Starting point is 01:39:07 It's fine. I mean, that's the thing about in prison. Like, I had a lot of friends, man. I was smart. I had money on the streets.
Starting point is 01:39:14 Right. So I always knew, surround myself with people, you know what I mean? And, but them kind of people are good to have because you need stuff done in prison. Yeah. Yeah, that guy will, he'll probably, you know, these guys clean clothes. They do shoes, you know, they'll clean your shoes. They'll do, they'll hold your cell phone for you. Yeah, make your bunk bed.
Starting point is 01:39:35 Well, we didn't have, I mean, we didn't have many cell phones at that time. So the federal prisons are full of cell phones now. Right, right, right. But back then, I was. there before COVID. Like after COVID, everybody I talked to, like since we've been calling and you heard the ringing, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's somebody from federal prison called twice. Nice, nice. It says federal prison on it.
Starting point is 01:39:56 Nice. But, you know, like I would, before COVID, well, after COVID, so many officers retired. Yeah. And they brought new officers in that don't really know anything. and so they get groomed and yeah and the prisoners so the prisoners are going nuts they can get away with anything why because there's no officers that really know how the system works
Starting point is 01:40:22 or knows our little scam so the prison I was in that had I'll bet you had four cell phones out of 2,000 guys and they were coveted now every time they do a sweep they'll find 250 cell phones for a couple of like or 300 cell phones every every month or so they're finding
Starting point is 01:40:42 these guys making alcohol but you know hooch they'll like none of that ever was happening when I was there but you know they got a new staff and and the staff's bringing in bringing in stuff yeah bringing in drugs they're bringing in cell phones they're bringing in all kinds of stuff that they're not supposed to see I guess it was different because like you know for state because like you know my two big sense was you know 05 to 08 and then you know from 2010 to 2014 right and I mean we were just I mean we were loaded with cell phones yeah but it's the state they don't get paid enough. So the officers are supplementing what they're supplementing their income by bringing in a cell phone for a thousand dollars. It's an $80 cell phone. They're getting $1,000 for it.
Starting point is 01:41:24 Right. So, but in the federal system, these guys were being paid so well. And they, because you have to think once they've been there 10, 15 years, these guys are making $80, $100,000 a year as an officer. It's not worth bringing in a couple cell phones. No. But when they get hired, they're being hired at like $35,000. And so they're supplementing that $35,000. And so they're supplementing that $30,000. $5,000 by, look, if once a month I bring in two cell phones, that, that's an extra $24,000 a year. Yeah. So that's worth it. It's worth the time, you know?
Starting point is 01:41:54 I mean, because, I mean, the guy, I mean, especially in the state, I mean, you can groom officers so easily. Like, I mean, you're, you're just, you're just hanging out with them, buying them sodas. And it always was, always struck me weird, like, like, you could, you would be able to groom them like the easiest way by, like, like, oh, go give me a honey. bun and a soda like you want the you want a shitty honey bun and a soda like i i had a my my my cousin was in was locked up with me and one of the guards would constantly come to him and say and be like yo you got you got any fucking you got any snickers he'd go yeah give me a snickers you got all right
Starting point is 01:42:30 he'd go get him a snickers but this was also like his his room would get raided and they'd take all of his stuff and they'd stick it in in the um the mop room which is locked right and the next guard that came on he would go hey man let me um my place got hit he'd go can i get the key to the to the mop so i can get a mop and he goes all right here go get it go get it you know he'd go and he come he'd be walking out the thing with all of his stuff yeah yeah yeah he gets it another guy gives it back because he's making friends with him you know i was never like that with the the guards but you know i never really had any any real money and all the money i i didn't buy a lot of stuff like i wasn't trying to make myself comfortable.
Starting point is 01:43:11 I was writing stories and I had a different level of comfort where most guys are like just trying to keep themselves entertained and be relaxed. Yeah, I mean. I mean, and you're using dark psychology on these guys. You know, you're gaslighting these guys up and, you know, and it's such a mind manipulation when you're with these, with the guards. Everything is in prison. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:43:33 I mean, the reason I think prison is the greatest education you could give a person in sales and marketing because you drop somebody in prison and you're like, live with this person, different race, different background, different everything, and survive. Yeah. Well, you know, the other thing is prison is the only time most of these guys, like the white collar guys,
Starting point is 01:43:58 and then you've got the guy, the street guys, that they're ever going to mix together. You've got to guys that are multi-millionaires that are rooming with a guy that's a crackhead that's never left the state or really even his area and these guys are now spending hours a day talking
Starting point is 01:44:15 like that crackhead's never going to have the opportunity to talk to this guy and this guy's here and talking to this crackhead who's sitting there and he's like my god your mother was what your father did look oh my god what do you mean your cousin did this how did you know like he's never met this guy before
Starting point is 01:44:31 and now he's trapped in a room so you have that used to say it was the great equalizer didn't matter how much money you had you could still end up in a room for two years with a guy that doesn't have an education and has been a drug addict his entire life. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing where, I mean, I don't know about the federal level,
Starting point is 01:44:50 but the state level is it is very much us versus them. It's the blue versus brown. It's, you know, you band together, you know what I mean? I don't feel like it's that much like that. So here's the difference between the state system, too. Is it in the state system, it's my understanding is there's a lot of interaction with cops
Starting point is 01:45:10 I mean sorry with the with the guards or prison guards like there's lots of guards they're all over the place you're constantly having to interact with them in the federal system I could go a year and never talk to a guard
Starting point is 01:45:25 like I never like you literally you're being counted they don't talk to you when you're counted they don't there's no real interaction maybe they might call mail call but I could literally go six months to a year before I ever had to go and ask them for anything or say anything to it. And when I say a year, it's only because every once a year you had to meet with your counselor and your unit manager. And most of the time you walked in and they'd say, oh, you got
Starting point is 01:45:52 20-something years to go and you probably should be programming, but you don't have to worry about it right now. You got 20 years. So here, just sign off here and you go, all right. And you'd sign and you'd walk out. But in the state system, there's all kinds of interaction. Oh, yeah. I mean, And, I mean, I don't know this with the racist, but, like, in Florida, like, it's, it's, like, you know, black and white get work right along with each other, you know what I mean? Like, in other states and, like, federal, I've heard it's, like, it's very, you know, segregated, you know what I mean? For a certain point. See, I think it, it obviously goes by, by the different prisons, obviously, because, you know, it was semi like that in the, um, at the medium, but at the low, it definitely was. not like that like it was definitely like we're you know like probably one of the guys that
Starting point is 01:46:41 I'd say like if a grown man can have a best friend um one of my best friends I would say see does that does that I still got to bother you it would bother me to this day if I look down on my phone and was like federal prison I'm like fuck and this guy keeps calling I mean I know who it is well it's one of two or three guys um uh I would say that that uh you know a lot like for instance one of the guys that I met that I talked to say that actually we were interviewed today. He was one of those three guys that we were all here together. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:47:12 Is a guy named Zach that I met in the medium in federal prison, black guy. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? We hang out. We text all the time. So, you know, there's not that divide. And especially when you go down to the low. And I'm sure there's even less when you get to the camp.
Starting point is 01:47:26 And a lot of people are just pretending. Yeah. You know, it's almost like they're pretending that they're in a game. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's the thing like in the state level. You got the, you know, the white gangs. and then they're like, oh, but then most of the gang bangers
Starting point is 01:47:39 are those are the same guys that have, you know, that have punk girlfriends. And then, you know, that are just like hanging out with each other, you know, and they're like, oh, yeah, can't be around them guys. And so, cell shuts, it's like, oh. You know what's so funny about that? Is that this is the South.
Starting point is 01:47:54 There's very little racial tension in the South prison systems. But if you go to California. Oh, yeah, no, it's a whole other world. Oh, my God. Or you go to New York. York? Or it's like, okay, well, they're supposed to be, you know, kind of racial harmony in these states. And these guys are like, you can't take a pencil from a black guy. You're not supposed to be talking to them. You can't deal with them. You can't play cards with them. You can, like, or your own guys will beat the crap out of you. Like, it's not like that down here that I know of. Maybe in the pins. No, it's not, not in that way. It's, it's, you know, no, you got the course, you got the ones who says they're, you know, white power and then guys. But, you know, But then it's like, you know, it's like, oh, then you see them secretly making deals with, you know, people.
Starting point is 01:48:40 And it's like, it's like, it's not that way. Mostly, I feel like it's a front. And it's really more for protection. Like you feel more protected. Well, yeah, because it's a numbers thing. You feel like you're protected because you have all these people here. And that, I mean, I remember the, like, the worst thing I think ever happened to me where I realized it's like, I was, I think, it was, toward my second stint. And I was in there.
Starting point is 01:49:02 and my, I had got a razor blade, and I was using it to chop up food, like, you know, sausages to make goulages. I got it in my locker, right? Well, this guy comes to me, he's like, hey, man, can I borrow a tuna? I'm like, yeah, the same thing you're talking about, you know, hey, I'll get you tomorrow, get you tomorrow, yeah, no problem, man. Hey, can I borrow, where I borrow cheese? No, my money's coming, blah, blah, because it's not like in Florida State, like your money can come on any day. It's not like a certain day. I mean, he just refreshes.
Starting point is 01:49:33 It's $75 hours every Monday. It refreshes. Right. You know, but on Saturday, your money can come on. You can have $75 hours. So he's like, yeah, yeah. I was like, I was like, finally, after about the third time, I was like, oh, man. Look, man, I can't keep letting you borrow stuff, man.
Starting point is 01:49:49 He's like, oh, man, I got you for real. I got you for real. I was like, all right, man. And my buddy was like, my buddy Callie boy was like, look, man, you better have his, you better have his shit tomorrow. For real. I was like, yeah, I got, I got it more. I just talked to my mom, the money will be there.
Starting point is 01:50:03 So he goes and bars and stuff out of my locker, right? And I was sitting there at the table playing cards. And next thing I know, you know, it's locked down. We're sitting there and I'm laying in bed. I'm sitting there relaxing. Next thing is here comes cops. It's in my bunk. Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up.
Starting point is 01:50:21 He didn't want to drop the kite that I was going to escape. And I had a knife. So. because he wants you have to go away so he don't have to pay the debt and then so he's like they're like digging through my locker and this female is like digging through my locker and she pokes herself with the razor oh no so and her fingers like just bleeding down I'm like oh fuck this ain't good and they grabbed me up and they're taking me and they got me handcuffed and I'm walking and medical was straight ahead because whenever you go to confinement
Starting point is 01:51:02 in Florida you automatically go to a medical just to make sure you're going to be okay in confinement like you have any medical issues you need a bull or bunk whatever well they take me the opposite path and I'm going around the building where there's no, it's a blind spot where there's no cameras.
Starting point is 01:51:19 Not good at all. Next thing I know, feet get kicked out underneath me I go straight to the ground. They're dropping it. I mean luckily enough I was cuff they probably would have done more damage if I hadn't been cuffed. But I was cuffed, I was so tight,
Starting point is 01:51:34 and I dropped down, and they're, like, just dropping elbows on me, and they're, like, taking their mace and, like, trying to show it in my mouth and, like, shoot, me, and I'm just getting, I got mace, and I'm just getting elbowed, and I'm like, and I'm not screaming, because I'm not going to sell for it.
Starting point is 01:51:48 Like, the one thing is I knew, if I don't sell for it, the more I react, the more they're going to react. So I just get mace and get the shit kicked out of me. And I get, they take me to the cell, to the shower cell and they had me uncuff and shower me and I'm getting showered down and everything
Starting point is 01:52:04 and I'm not saying anything. Right. Am I saying anything? And I'm like just, and then I'm like bleeding from the side of my face and everything. It's like they take me into the cell and they put me in a one-man cell.
Starting point is 01:52:15 I mean, well, it's a two-buck cell but I'm empty. Yeah. I'm like, and next thing I know, I'm just sitting there and like 10 minutes later the sergeant comes up to the door. I'm like, the trick they would do is they would get you back there
Starting point is 01:52:28 now they got you back there, you're kicking the door or you're doing something. Now they're going to spray you again or they're going to or they'll starve you to death. What they'll do is they'll say, oh, refusing to eat. Like, no, not. Yeah, because they walk by the cell and they've got a hand feed you your train. Oh, refusal to eat. Like, you know, and they would open your flap and they shut your flap. Right.
Starting point is 01:52:51 And they would take two, three days and they wouldn't even feed you. And then eventually they would, you know, the nurse come, oh, you want to eat. You know, we're going to speak, all the officers not feeding me. Right. That's going to go over well. So, you know, so the sergeant comes to me and he knows me. He's like, he's like, what's up, man? I was like, look, look, I had the thing.
Starting point is 01:53:12 What was it? I said, dude. And he's like, yeah, he's like, he's like, it's the same. He said, this is on fire. I said, sergeant was like, look, man, just feed me, man. Don't gas me. I ain't saying a word. He said, all right.
Starting point is 01:53:26 You know, two, three hours later. I get a roommate. They move somebody into my thing. So that way, now I know since they put somebody in there, they're not going to gas me every day. Right. So now I'm in there with them,
Starting point is 01:53:36 and like I end up getting like, you know, 60 days for a weapon charge or whatever. And the whole time I own the compound, I'm like, you know, my buddy sends me a note back there. He's like, the guy checked into, he's downstairs.
Starting point is 01:53:51 He's in fear of his life now. So, but the problem now is I have a weapon charge and he put the fear of life. He checked in. under me so they can't put us both back out on the compound so they transfer me and i end up getting transferred i ended up getting transferred to tayor c i oh he could have just checked in yeah he didn't have to drop the note he could have just checked in yeah he yeah but but he thought the first time when he dropped the note i would just go away and and nobody would say anything no it's
Starting point is 01:54:16 saying together yeah and then yeah that's just that's how it is man and people in prison will literally sell their soul for a noodle yeah it's the craziest thing i've ever seen scene. What about catfish in prison? Oh, yeah. So catfishing in prison. So my buddy Nick, right, good old Nick, man.
Starting point is 01:54:39 He had the cat fishing game down. Right. So, like, when you would sit there and you would do this, you would do these crazy women will write dudes that are locked up. They're in love with it. It's such a control thing, right?
Starting point is 01:54:55 It goes back to dark psychology where you're like, you're controlling them, but they think they're controlling you. Right. And he's like writing these guys. He's even writing dudes. Right. And I remember one time, like, he's writing the dude wanted to come visit him. And he's like, Nick's like, no, bro, you can't come visit me.
Starting point is 01:55:13 He goes, like, I'll get in trouble here. You know, they'll, you know, they'll beat me up here. You know, they find out that we're, we're an item, we're in love. And he's just like getting them to send money to him. Yeah. And, I mean, he would just, and he literally. catfish this one girl she would literally
Starting point is 01:55:30 working at Walmart I was not making a ton of money right so she's like sitting in his whole paycheck every week and it's like and it's like amazing it's like it was just like you would sit there and watch these guys like I mean a girl's name in prison
Starting point is 01:55:47 like a pen pal is worth gold right and now I mean now they have like websites you can get put on and all kinds of stuff but it's like I remember there was like there was there was they would pass these girls around like pen pals like like they would be like oh you know so i mean the thing is is like that's the reason you always would in state i don't know how it's unfair but you always tear your corner of your envelope off and you throw it away like the return address oh yeah
Starting point is 01:56:14 yeah yeah yeah because you don't want someone writing your your people and stuff right well i even i even had a friend who was uh basically he was uh playing both sides of defense in prison he was uh he had a girlfriend in prison and he had a wife on the outside and he he was like even you know he was like telling the punk oh we're going to get married and when i got out we'll leave my wife so the phone goes and grabs the wife's address and writes a letter to her and tells him everything i'm i'm here with your husband every night he talks about me i knew your kids names and it's like this poor guy goes to visitation thinking his wife like starts snapping visitation like the jubes jumped over the table and was like, like, choking him.
Starting point is 01:56:58 Like, you know, like, you know, it's like, like, what do you do? Like, why would you even put yourself in that position? I know. I was going to say, so the pen pal thing, so I was on a couple of TV shows, like American Greed and Dateline and stuff. Yeah, yeah. So I would get these letters from, from women would write me. Like, I had a woman that had just gotten out of federal or got out of like state prison.
Starting point is 01:57:20 Right. She's writing me like, I want to hook up with you. I want to learn from you. Your game was so tight. you know and i'm just like like i i can't write this person back like this person's insane and sending like photographs of herself it's like stop i'm not interested yeah but i had this i had a guy that wrote me and said he loved my artwork blah blah blah but i knew he was gay because in the in the letter he mentioned uh going to um following madonna he mentioned madonna that he had gone to this madonna
Starting point is 01:57:50 concert and I take care of my grandmother full time and I dressed up as Madonna for, you know, whatever. And then another time he's like, the next week I'm going to a Madonna. And I remember everybody I let it read the letter. They were like, this guy's mentioned Madonna three separate times in a two-page letter. Yeah. And so they were like, you know, what are you going to do? I said, oh, and his whole thing was, I want to buy a painting from you. So I wrote back and I said, listen, bro, I get it, but I don't have access to paint paintings in here. Like, there's paintings, but I said, you know, to paint oil paintings, you would need, it's $400 or $500 just for the basic paint set.
Starting point is 01:58:27 Plus, you have to buy the canvases. And I can only build, you can only, the largest size you can get is whatever, because it's like, I want a five foot by 10 foot paintings. Like, you can't do any of that in here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I explain that, I sent it back. Then he writes back later, he's like, look, what can you do? And I was like, I mean, for probably a hundred.
Starting point is 01:58:44 I can get like a watercolor pencil set. Yeah. You know, and I can write on and get water paper and draw something for you. Like, and he said, look, I'm going to send you, you know, a hundred bucks to get the set. Well, the set was like $50. Like the whole lot of stuff, I spent maybe $50 and the whole thing. So I have 50 left over. So I actually draw something up.
Starting point is 01:59:08 I actually drew something. And I sent it to the guy like, here, here you go, because he gave me an extra, because it was an extra 50 bucks, whatever. and then he sends me another thing and says look you know I love you know I'm so I'm so excited that you written me so he's wanting to get something else from like hey kid is there any way you could this
Starting point is 01:59:23 and so my buddy I'm like I'm not going to write this guy and this is weird and I remember my buddy Harold what do you want you know draw at your penis or something he just he wanted me to keep sitting himself anyway my buddy Harold which was my celly yeah we're sitting there and he goes you know this is this is like what if this guy keep you're going to keep
Starting point is 01:59:43 this going? I said, no, I don't think so. I said, I might try and get another hundred bucks or something, but I can't imagine. I don't know. I said, it's feeling real, real creepy. And I said, he keeps mentioned Madonna. This guy's clearly gay. He takes care of his grandmother. He's like a registered nerd. Like, something's not right about this guy. Right, right. And he goes, well, if you keep it going, he goes, like, what if he wants to talk to you on the phone? And I went, I don't care if he pays for it. I'll talk to him on the phone. And he's, well, what if he wants to come see you? And I went, I mean, if he'll buy me some food out of the locker, or out of
Starting point is 02:00:16 the vending machines, I said, I'll go to visit. Yeah, no right. And he goes, what if he, I go, I mean, fuck, I go, bro, I got a lot of time. And he goes, I said, I mean, if he's going to buy me some food, I said, I'll go. And he goes, what if he gets here and he wants a hug? And I go, I mean, I'll give the guy a hug. I got a lot
Starting point is 02:00:32 of time, Harold. And then he goes, he said, what if he wants a peck on the face, on the, he wants a quick kiss? I go, it's just a kiss. I've got a lot of time. What do you want me to say? Harold, Harold, for a cheeseburger, what about? Whoa, well, we're in different spots.
Starting point is 02:00:48 You're leaving in two years. Listen, we were laughing so fucking hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I would get these letters. I could never, I could never do it. I just could, I'd write one letters as like, I can't do it. Yeah, yeah, it was just, I was like, I mean, he had like a lab going. It was just like, he was writing four or five of them at one time.
Starting point is 02:01:07 Oh, listen, there are a guy. I knew a guy. His name is Ellis. His name is Ellis Cook, and I remember he started writing this chick, and she came to see it. She's sitting in money, everything, money for the phone, money for, for, for, for, for a minute so you can use the email system. Yeah. Yeah, she's sitting in money to put on his books so he can buy commissary, and she comes to see him one time. And we were like, and we were like, what, what's she looked like?
Starting point is 02:01:35 What's going on? What's going on? He goes, he came back and he goes, she's a biggin. She's a big in And I went What do you mean big? And he goes I mean she's a big girl
Starting point is 02:01:45 And I go Well what do you mean big He was I mean He was I gave her a hug When she came in I saw her And I was like holy shit And he said
Starting point is 02:01:53 And I gave her a hug And he goes And I couldn't get He couldn't wrap it My arms He said Yeah I
Starting point is 02:02:03 He said But she did say She's gonna drop some money In commissary for me Hey man Hey man It's I'm telling man, people will, people in prison will, well, they'll, I've never seen people
Starting point is 02:02:15 ruling the cell they're sold for a honey bun and, and a noodle as much as they will. I mean, I mean, they're right. I mean, it's like they'll, they'll make the craziest lies up or they'll do order to whatever. Oh, they'll promise all kinds of stuff. Oh, yeah, oh yeah, my, my, my, my dead grandmother is going to come back from the grave and mail you $100, Matt, for, for this honey bun this week. Yeah, I'm, I'm going to leave my wife and kids and come live with you. Like, you don't know this person. You've written 20 letters. What are you doing?
Starting point is 02:02:41 Yeah. Like, it's crazy, man. And the thing is, like, I think the worst, though, is the relationships people get in prison. When you start getting into the marriages inside prison, like, some of these guys, they, I mean, like, like you said, some of them have a lot of time, right? So they look at, like, this is really my husband or this is my, my, my husband over. I remember, I was at Cross City City I, and, like, I'm sitting there on, like, the pedal bike, and I'm, like, just hanging out with a couple buddies. and I watch one of these, you know, you know, they call she, male guys come up and,
Starting point is 02:03:15 and see, punk, they're going to come in prison. Yeah, I didn't know what she wanted to say for the video. But, yeah, but so the, so, like, people don't realize the punks are in the prison. I've said that. Like, like, like, they ain't the gang bangers. They should get an enhancement. They have a good time in prison.
Starting point is 02:03:30 Like, like, like, they, they run the show. Yeah, people don't realize. Yeah, they're like, oh, and they got the inmates wrapped around their finger, and they got the guards wrapped up. around their finger and they're like so i remember this one monk was sitting there like hanging out and this this brother came up to his and just slapped him around the ass and was like hey tonight i'm fuck you he's like he's like no i'm married my husband's in confinement blah blah blah and i'm like you just told this is the one way he's right you told us about it yeah yeah he he he went and
Starting point is 02:03:59 grab the he was on the wait bar he was on the way bar working out next thing you know he couldn't grab he couldn't grab the knife and just ha ha ha What happened to that guy? What the, the punk? Oh, went to confinement. He already had a life sentence. He had two double life sentences. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 02:04:16 So what does it matter? Okay, this is what you do. You kill somebody in Florida prison. They're like that, right? You stop somebody up. They don't, I mean, if you already got a double life sentence, what you're going to happen, you're going to get sent to either Santa Rosa or you'll get sent to Florida State Penitentiary. And you'll go to closed management.
Starting point is 02:04:38 you'll be in closed management three to five years and then when you're done there then you go back on the compound like like yeah there's nothing you do like like that's it like what are you going to do
Starting point is 02:04:51 I mean but now when you get people in closed management there's been because when I when they sent them in closed management I was like man there's some dudes have been back at seven eight nine years and like that's a mind fuck
Starting point is 02:05:03 to be in a small one man cell for you know 20 hours a day. I mean, it's a mind fog. Hey, you guys, I appreciate you watching. Do me a favor if you like the video, hit the subscribe button. Also, we're going to leave all of Charlie's social media links. It's I'm Charlie
Starting point is 02:05:20 Hartman, and we're going to leave all of his social media links, including, you know, YouTube, he's got an Instagram, everything. We're to leave those in the description box, so go in there, click them, follow, subscribe. Also, do me a favor, and please consider joining our Patreon. It's
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